Behind the Guitar Strings
by Remir'wrath
Summary: A bard who works as a saboteur is tasked to sabotage an enemy guild by playing with the heart of a prominent young dancer girl. By an unexpected twist of faith he falls in love and is now torn between her and his mission. R&R please!
1. Part 1

**Part 1 **

Nighttime in the Payonese forests can only be described, as some would say as cold, damp and dark only lit by rays from the moon passing between the branches of the trees.

An indistinct figure whisks behind the trees it glances back and the moonlight illuminates her face revealing her as a beautiful dancer. Her short shoulder length light brown-hair flowing behind her from the speed of her running and her lemon yellow eyes clouded with fear.

She keeps glancing behind her, fear definitely seen upon her face. One cannot help but ask "Why?" since she is more than capable of handling all the monsters in this forest. The answer is that she is not running from any monster but from something far more dangerous-Her guild.

Her repetitive panting echoes through the humid forest air. She is running out of energy and one of her guild mates is slowly catching up.

In a last attempt to survive she reaches to her waist then pulls out a rapture rose (her personal favorite). With a flick of her wrist the thorn encrusted whip swishes up a tree branch and wraps around it. Kicking herself up with her right foot she rises a good five feet above the ground and gracefully lands on the tree branch.

Her chaser finally arrives skidding to a halt then standing in the middle of the trees, eyes darting in all directions in search for the dancer. A breeze of wind blows some branches apart allowing the moonlight to reveal that the chaser is a female black smith. She wore her midnight-blue-colored hair in a low hanging ponytail and on her left arm a burning skull tattoo proved that she was Lucia former third in command now second-in-command of the "Malacca Guild".

"Come out Persha!" she called out into the forest. Persha hid herself even more to avoid being seen. Lucia gave a sigh then leaned on the tree where Persha was hiding. Persha clasped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from making any noise that would reveal her. Lucia returned her two handed axe back to its belt loop then pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. After lighting the cigarette then putting it in her mouth she puffed a few times before speaking again, cigarette still in mouth "Last chance Persha, Come out!" the dancer didn't answer. Lucia took the cigarette from her mouth then threw it above her.

"OH...Ouch...hot...hot...AHHHHHHH!" Persha fell from the tree then landed on her butt right in front of Lucia.

"Well," said Lucia "What do I owe the pleasure?"

Persha quickly stood up and lashed her whip at the blacksmith. Lucia threw her lighter at the whip, thus igniting it.

Persha spun her whip over her head in an attempt to douse the flames but Lucia ran up to her and kicked the whip out of the dancer's hands. She raked the whip near her using her two handed axe, which at some point had been retrieved from her belt loop.

Persha sat down on the ground "Why are you doing this to me Lucia?" she asked

Lucia didn't answer but simply brought out a parchment and read aloud. "You have committed betrayal against your guild and are hereby accountable for the grave loses including the death of Abenander Sutorin our former guild master. You shall await the decision of your guild for your punishment." Lucia put the parchment back into her backpack then looked down on her former guild mate and friend with the mix of hate and affection, a very curios combination.

She heard a voice in her head and wasn't alarmed, since she was used to it. It was their guild's telepathic connection, a connection that emerged once they had created the guild from the emperium.

"_Have you found her already Lucia?"_ asked her wizard-guild mate Rhozen through the telepathic connection.

"_Yup, I'm looking at her as we speak"_ Lucia answered

"_Okay then gives us your coordinates so we can warp to you"_

"_90 degrees north, 30 degrees east"_

The telepathic communication stopped and behind the dancer and the black smith a portal opened.

Seven people stepped out of the portal in this order First, Paris a Hunter Second, Sonon an assassin, Third Rhozen a wizard, Fourth Maharet Rhozen's fiancé a sage Fifth, Corvus a Knight Sixth, Victor a crusader Followed lastly, by Adella the priestess guild mistress. She was the younger sister of Abenander the former guild master, who was a priest as well.

One cannot imagine the pain she felt looking at the one responsible for her brother's death, the one that she had trusted so much before.

"I'm sorry for your brother's death. And I know my apologies wont bring him back" said Persha keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Why did you do that Persha? What wrong did he do to you?" asked Adella tears falling down her cheek.

"I did it the same reason you are chasing me Adella-for love," said Persha "I loved Jared; you out of all people should understand why I did what I did, since you loved your brother."

"My brother was a good man! Your Lover was only fooling you into betraying Malacca!"

Persha was silent, all that Adella said was true but she couldn't help herself from saving the man she loved.

"I'm sorry Adella," said Persha finally looking up at the face of the priestess.

"Your apologies do not bring back the dead," answered Adella her knuckles turning white as she gripped her skirts in anger.

"I wasn't apologizing for Abenander"

"Then what are you apologizing for then?" asked the priestess

"For this," Persha did a scorpion kick and hit Adella on the head. The priestess fell on the ground. Lucia raised her axe over her head and began to shout her skill "Hammer Fa..." her skill was interrupted as Persha's heel slammed into her jaw. She fell on the ground as well. Persha hooked her whip with her foot, kicked it up in the air then caught it with no effort at all. She whipped Adella up to her, pulled out a dagger and placed it threateningly near the priestess' neck

"Everybody, throw your weapons away" called Persha

"Do what she says," commanded Adella keeping her face as calm as she could muster. Everybody threw their weapons at the sides. Persha stared at all of them looking for someone who was about to pull a trick on her. "You, Rhozen, Maharet put your hands over your head where I can see them" The two magic users did as they were told

When Persha was sure she could get away she threw Adella on the ground and threw the knife which landed on the priestess' sleeve thus pinning her down and ran away from her guild

"Get her!" ordered Adella

Everybody went to the sides to look for their weapons

"Quickly she's getting away!"

Rhozen didn't bother to get his arc wand; he pointed at Persha a tear slid down his cheak before he shouted "FROST DRIVER!" huge spikes of ice whisked past Adella narrowly missing her face. The icicles chased Persha who ran as fast as she could. She attempted to whip up a tree again. She put her hand near her chest then flung it up again but it was too late. She was standing there, arms outstretched, whip limping from her hand, her feet weren't moving and a shocked look was on her face. A bloody spike of ice protruded from her stomach. She fell on the floor and started to recall everything that had happened.


	2. Part 2

**Part 2**

Persha was dancing in the Pronteran pub. Her wrists twisted in perfect unison with her hips making all the bells and bracelets she wore create light jingles. She moved through the steps with grace using the natural rhythm in the air for the beat of her counting.

"Hey! Pretty lady come down here and give me a little smooch," said a drunk man

Persha didn't mind the drunkard and continued dancing.

"Hey! Didn't you here me" shouted the drunkard reaching up on stage and grabbing Persha's foot. Persha's whip suddenly appeared from under one of her many shawls and she lashed it down full force.

"Raagh!" shouted the drunkard as the rapture rose's thorns sank into the flesh of his hand

"Disgusting little hode" said Persha. She whipped the man on the face and made him fall on the ground with nasty wounds.

She stormed out of the Pub very frustrated. As she was stomping away muttering to herself how egotistical men were, she heard a soothing sound that calmed her anger. She followed the music until its origin came into her view.

A brown haired Bard was playing the song. Persha immediately danced to it out of instinct. The bard gave a handsome smile and continued playing his mandolin. A few people passed by and were captivated by the ensemble. They started cheering then threw some zenny and other objects they had in their person. Persha and the Bard bowed once they were done.

"Thank you for that wonderful time" said Persha

"Don't mention it," answered the Bard

"I'm Persha Melencarta; might I know your name?"

"You'll know soon enough," answered the Bard

Persha gave an disgruntled look at the bard's peculiar answer then decided to shift the topic "Would you like to join our guild?" she asked "The guild wars are drawing nearer and still I haven't found myself a suitable bard"

"Ill take it into consideration" said the bard before he smiled again

"You can sign up in the north east guild house of Prontera," said Persha

The bard broadened his smile then nodded

Persha smiled back then ran towards her guild house waving goodbye at the bard

The bard watched Persha until she was out of sight.

"What are you up to Jared?" asked a voice out of nowhere. Then, from the shadows of an alley an assassin crept out.

"What are you talking about Haja?" asked Jared his smile turning to a deviant sneer.

"Don't play dumb with me; you know that dancer girl is from Malacca"

"I see that you did your homework."

"It doesn't take a genius to know who wiped out an entire regiment in our army during guild wars, single handedly I might add." Said Haja

"Well, tell Lord Reginald that we won't have any problem with that dancer anymore, tell him I will play her like I play my mandolin"

Haja smirked then disappeared back into the shadows

Jared walked away whistling

Haja was searching for a way to get to Al de Baran so he could report his guild mate's plan to his guild master.

He walked up to an acolyte who was chewing on an apple in a corner "Warp me to Al de Baran or else" demanded Haja, clutching the acolyte by the collar of his robes.

"Let go of me you freak," shouted the acolyte pushing the assassin back

In a flash Haja held the acolyte by the throat the tip of his katar drawing a little blood, below the chin.

"Warp me to Al de Baran…or else" repeated Haja this time putting more emphasis on _or else_.

The acolyte smiled nervously then whispered, "Warp portal",

The air around them swirled and a doorway of light appeared.

Haja looked at the portal "You took too long" he said to the acolyte before slitting the poor boy's throat.

The assassin stepped into the warp and was immediately transported to Al de Baran


	3. Part 3

**Part 3**

The cold northern winds swept through Al de Baran and into the Suldam guild house. Lord Reginald Ituralde stood at the terrace looking down at the people who looked like ants from where he stood. The wind cut through his cloak though he refused to let the cold touch him.

There was a knock on the door and a servant put his head in. "Um…excuse me my lord…Master Haja wishes to speak with you."

"Did I already give you permission to enter?" asked Reginald, his voice as cold as the winter winds.

"Forgive me my lord… but I was informed it was very urgent. Please have mercy on me." said the servant lowering his head to the floor.

"Mercy?" barked Ituralde facing the prostrating servant "I don't know the word. It is something the weak use to hide behind of."

"Yes my lord…"

In a few seconds Reginald strode across the length of the room and sliced off the servant's head mid-sentence.

The door fully opened and Haja stood in the hallway. The assassin stepped back one-step. Though half his face was covered with a mask his black eyes were pools of fear.

"May I enter my lord" asked Haja while delivering a very deep bow.

Reginald looked at the assassin who still didn't get up from the bow and delayed a little longer before answering. "Yes you may."

Haja ripped the dead servant's sleeve and handed it to the Knight as he entered. Reginald looked at the ripped cloth in the assassin's hand and his eyes went up to Haja's face. His hand quickly snatched the mask. Haja flinched as his mask was pulled of his face and Reginald used it to wipe the blood off his sword.

"What is it that you have to tell me?" asked Reginald throwing the bloodstained mask back to the assassin. He strode to a nearby table and poured wine for himself. "Well?" he added before taking a sip.

"My lord Jared has begun to infiltrate Malacca. He has created a connection to Persha Melencarta."

The half empty glass shattered in Haja's face, cutting and drenching him.

"You do not speak that name in this guild house!" shouted Reginald, his arm still outstretched from hurling the glass.

Haja immediately went on all fours and prostrated himself before Reginald. "I apologize, my lord. Please have me…" Haja hesitated for a moment remembering the fate of the foolish servant who begged mercy from Lord Reginald. He himself was no fool so he twisted his sentence to fit the one he was speaking to. "Please have me whipped for my insolence."

Haja looked up, Reginald's fingers eased from their grip on the pommel of his sword.

"Fortunately for you, I do not have the time to arrange you whipped." said Reginald fully releasing his sword and turning towards the terrace. "So Jared has finally made contact with the _dancer_" Reginald's mouth tightened at the word "What else do you have to report?"

"Rodel Florsheim of the Aurum Guild has been successfully exterminated, and so has Edith Lanai of the Baltimore guild. Our spies in their guilds have the possible successors at each other's throats. Their quarrels will extend into the guild wars and Malacca will be less two strong allies." Haja said as clerical as he could

"Good…good. Have our spies push the arguments farther so that Aurum and Baltimore will decide to separate."

"Yes my lord, will there be anything else?"

"I want you back in Prontera and keeping an eye on Jared. Make sure he does what he is supposed to do and nothing else." said Reginald with his grave-cold voice. He turned his iron gray eyes at Haja and seemed to bore into the assassin's skull with his stare.

Haja bowed again before exiting the room and closing the door behind him. He remained a fast paced walk through the hall and let out a breath he did not realize he was holding. Not many people had this effect on assassins. His occupation called for killing people on orders but Lord Reginald Ituralde had an air about himself that just shouted deadliness. By the time Haja turned a corner he was running as fast as his feet could carry him


	4. Part 4

**Part 4**

With mere weeks before the guild wars people began flooding in the guild houses hoping to join in one themselves. The northeastern guild house in Prontera was especially crowded.

"Single file people! Single file! For goodness sake single file you bastard sons of Pecopecos!" shouted Paris out of irritation.

The crowd gathered into a crooked line in front of the sign up desk. Paris sighed it made to make do for now.

"Name, occupation and past experiences," dictated Paris to the next in line

"I am Mudos Hilgad, Knight; I was affiliated with the Sylthereen guild." answered a dark-haired knight flinging back his cape so that his sword could be seen.

"You really were part of Sylthereen? How long were you in the guild and why'd you leave!" enthusiastically asked Paris.

"Well…I wasn't in the guild per say. I was more of the guy who cleaned the stables." said the knight reluctantly while pulling his cape to cover his sword instead.

"Get out of here you wannabe!" shouted Paris after the knight, who ran away immediately "Come back when you actually _had_ experience! You'll be lucky enough to get to clean the stables here!" he hurled the inkbottle from the desk and it hit the knight directly at the back of his head.

Paris fell back on his chair and started rubbing his eyes. Immediately the people started complaining and shot Paris straight up once again.

"Keep your shirts on people! Hey you two, no drawing of weapons!" Paris shouted to a knight and assassin who were pointing their weapons threateningly at each other. "I mean it! Don't make me come their and finish the fight for both of you!"

"How's the recruitment going, Paris" called Rhozen as he walked out of the guild house.

Murmurs went through the crowd as the silver haired wizard walked up to the hunter. Paris would bet his life that those murmurs were about the famous wizard Rhozen, renowned professor in the academy of magic, special mention from the viceroy of Geffen himself and appointed teacher to the princess of Geffen.

"Not as well as I hoped. There's only a thimble full of real fighters in this amateur parade."

Grunts and shouts of disapproval came from the crowds but it was put to halt with one of Rhozen's steely stares, in fact the previously crooked line even straightened out.

"I just went out here to ask your opinion about something." said Rhozen reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small velvet-covered box. Inside the box was a golden ring with a large gemstone affixed on the top.

"So, you're finally popping the big question to Maharet?" said Paris giving a smile that split his face.

"Yeah, I finally had the nerve to ask her but do you think she'll say yes?"

"Of course she will, with a ring like that! Offer me that ring and I'll marry you right now." Joked Paris

Rhozen chuckled nervously and snapped the box shut. Paris noticed that Rhozen really was anxious about asking Maharet to marry him so he decided to stop the humor and give Rhozen as much support as he could.

"Really now Rhozen, she's crazy about you and you with her. All she's been waiting for is for you to ask her."

"You think so?" asked Rhozen uneasily fingering the rim of the box.

Paris would've chuckled at the sight of his usually composed friend if he was a teensy bit more inconsiderate. He thought about how women could mess with the heads of even the most brilliant men. "I know so." he said reassuringly.

Rhozen smiled and patted his friend on the back and Paris did the same.

"Oh come on already! Can we get on with the recruiting!" shouted someone from the crowd and everybody else joined in angry approval.

"Which, brave soul said that!" shouted Paris irritably while slamming his fist down on the table, it made the crowd suddenly quieted down, at least for the time being.

Paris sat down on the chair and picked up the quill. "I'm sorry Rhozen I have to get back to work. Let's just talk later."

"Sure, I didn't mean to bother you." Rhozen went back in the guild house and at the same time Persha came skipping out.

"Hi Paris, how's the recruiting going?" asked the dancer merrily bending to look at the list on the desk.

"It will never finish if everybody comes out and asks that question!" snapped Paris.

"Well somebody has an arrow up his ass today." said Persha folding her arms over her chest, tightening her lips, and looking down her nose at him.

Paris remembered what his dad always said. If a woman folds her arms over her chest then you should be wary, if her lips tightened sleep with a knife under your pillow, if she looks down her nose at you run to the next region and change your name. He gave a silent chuckle at the words but reminded himself just how true they were and that a woman was doing everything right at him. "I'm sorry Persha, what it is you wanted to tell me?" he said as innocently as he could muster.

"I was just wondering if any bard has shown up. You know tall, handsome, straw colored hair and wonderful blue pools for eyes." Said Persha getting lost in her description

"Seems specific," Said Paris sarcastically "But no, no bard has shown up so far. I'll just let you know if any turn up."

"You're so sweet Paris." said Persha kissing the hunter on the cheek.

Persha walked away from the guild house heading to the place she met the bard yesterday hoping that he would turn up again.

Haja watched the dancer from the shadows an alley. He looked at the other side of the street and gave the signal. The assassin on the other side nodded then raised his hand in front of his face. He pushed the top of the large square ring on his finger, revealing a small needle that was hidden underneath. He dipped the needle into a vial of poison and walked casually into the street. He walked up to Persha and pretended to bump into her while he pricked her arm with the ring.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry." Said the assassin

"Oh, its quiet alright." Answered Persha

The assassin nodded his head and continued down the street. Persha rubbed her arm half-mindedly then thought to herself. "An assassin who apologizes? I think they're turning soft." She turned into the alley deciding to cut through the residential areas so she could get to the square quicker.

Her arm started burning as she rubbed it and suddenly she felt a jolt of stabbing pain. She couldn't move her fingers and the pain began creeping up her shoulders.

Two rogues appeared out of nowhere holding long thin bladed knives.

"I knew there was something wrong with an assassin who apologizes!" shouted Persha to the rogues.

She reached for her rapture rose but the pain and paralysis had spread to her other arm as well.

One of the rogues jumped at her and she quickly pivoted narrowly missing the blade. She flung her knee up the rogue's gut and caused him to spur back clutching his stomach. The other rogue aimed for her legs but she performed a back flip while kicking his face. Before she could land the pain spread into her leg and she stumbled on the ground.

The two rogues advanced clutching their daggers tightly from anger. Persha's vision began to cloud and she tried to move or scream for help but all she could do was lie there.

She thought she was finally going to die but she heard one of the rogues shout something muffled then groan loudly before he fell down. She could make out the blurry image of something protruding from his shoulder.

The last thing she saw was someone else arriving before she completely blacked out.


	5. Part 5

**Part 5 **

Persha slowly opened her eyes and found herself looking up at the canvas-top of her bed. She wiggled the fingers on her arm and found out they were working perfectly again; aside from the fact that she was too weak to be able to continue wiggling.

"You're finally awake." said a familiar voice from the side of her bed.

Persha turned her head to the side and saw Adella sitting on a high backed chair with her finger placed between the pages of the book she was reading, to mark where she was. The priestess was beautiful beyond reason; Persha had not known people could be as beautiful as Adella before she met the woman, during her archer days. Adella's red-gold curls swayed as she stood from the chair and walked beside Persha's bed.

She raised Persha's arm and examined it as thoroughly as any priest would someone they had healed. "The swelling is almost gone and all the poison has been extracted, you've been asleep for two days now." said Adella giving Persha an accusing look as if she was saying it was Persha's own fault for not being careful enough that's why she got poisoned. The nerve! How was she to know that that assassin had any thought of poisoning her? And it was a hidden needle; anybody could have fallen prey to it! Well…Adella had a way about her of being the caring older sister who didn't want anything to happen to her sibling and both of them were close enough to be sisters as it was.

Persha sat up and clutched the blankets over her breasts. "How'd I get back here Adella?" asked Persha only remembering fighting the two rogues while the poison quickly took effect on her "Did anybody from the guild follow me?"

Adella gave an amused grin that had a hint of accusation in it. What Adella accused her of this time was beyond her. She gave a low sigh and didn't even bother to dig deeper since she knew that the chances of ramming down the walls of Prontera with you tongue was higher than succeeding at prying something out of Adella if she didn't want to talk.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, a familiar knock since Abenander was the only person she knew-or anybody else knew, she suspected- that liked to put musical rhythms when she knocked on the door.

"Come in." called Adella taking her place back on the chair

Abenander came in with a broad smile and a playful look in his eyes that was perpetually there. He had the exact same kind of red-gold curls as his sister and was every bit as handsome as she was beautiful. He checked her arm exactly the way Adella did. They were siblings through and through. Though, today she didn't pay much heed to Abenander since the man behind him caught all of her attention.

It was the Bard that she met the other day, the one she wanted to meet the day when she was poisoned and ambushed. Why was he here? Not that she objected, she could stare at his sapphire eyes everyday of her life and still feel elated every time she did. But she quickly regained her state of mind.

"It's you!" she squealed in delight much to her own dislike. Oh, the bard must think her a tavern maid jumping at the sight of every handsome man she saw. Handsome…yes,

"Well, Master Shaw has informed me that both of you are acquainted already." said Abenander.

"Master Shaw has never left your bedside since he brought you back." Cut in Adella flashing her smile again though this time there was more than a hint of accusation. Adella couldn't possibly think there was something going on between her and this master Shaw already? But Adella being Adella she probably did. "We had to pull him out of this room to get him to eat." Adella tittered lightly while Abenander gave an open grin.

Persha realized the bard was beginning to blush. So, he took care of her while she was in bed. That was a very good start. "Thank you for saving me Master Shaw, I wonder, if I ask your first name this time, will I get an answer." She was proud how calm and steady her voice was because inside she was screaming with delight as much as any tavern maid would, probably worse.

"My name is Jared Shaw mistress Melencarta." He gave a bow a very debonair smile. Persha thought she would faint again.

Adella immediately stood up and began to chivy both men out of the door. "Now that we're all fully acquainted, you men have to go out of this room. We'll meet again in the dining hall and have ourselves some breakfast. Go now; Persha's naked as the day she was born under those blankets."

Persha saw Jared stumble before Adella closed the door behind her. "Oh wipe that scowl off you face Persha!" retorted Adella "You should be more ashamed wearing those strings you dancer's call cloths! Now get dressed your man is waiting for you." Adella gave a warm smile before she exited the room herself.

Persha's kicked of the blankets immediately and rushed to her wardrobe. She opened the carved doors and quickly chose her dancer's uniform. Getting into the clothes quickly she checked herself on the tall stand mirror. With the tip of her fingers she pushed her hair behind her ears and picked up a heart hairpin from her bedside drawer. Checking herself in the mirror again her lips thinned before she replaced the heart hairpin with a stellar one. "I'm not a tavern maid; I'm a respectable dancer of Midgard." She repeated to herself with a slight hesitation since it didn't sound that right. With a final look at the mirror she left her room as well.

Persha walked down the familiar staircase towards the guild house's dining hall. She finally arrived in front of the two tall oak doors with the Rearing Red Stallion of Malacca. A servant opened the door and Persha nodded her head in thanks to him.

The room was finely lit by the sun's rays cascading from the high windows and the long table was set for four people with the remaining empty place waiting for her. Persha couldn't help but smile when she noticed the allure in Jared's face as she entered.

She glided towards the table and took the seat that was decidedly put beside Jared's. Abenander and Adella grinned in unison openly. Oh, how she wanted to knock their heads together.

Thankfully, the doors swung open and admitted the cook, to save Persha from the awkward moment. The cook was a large graying woman whose apron was straining over her impressive bosom and even more impressive stomach. Scullions carrying trays of food quickly followed her. Persha really doubted that four people could finish that much food. The scullions laid the trays on the table and one by one bowed and exited. The cook smiled approvingly before she herself exited and without a bow. Cooks almost always thought more of themselves than they should have: but who were you to argue when they prepared your food.

The room was immediately flooded by the mouth-watering scents of the meals and Persha didn't think she could contain herself any longer.

"Help yourself," Abenander said while gesturing with his hand. Persha immediately filled her plate with the nearest dish and began to eat maintaining her grace with all the will power she could muster.

"I thank you for your hospitality guild master." said Jared performing a slight bow with his head.

"Nonsense man, you deserve as much for saving the life of our Persha here." answered Abenander jovially before biting into a piece of meat. "If you ask me I say this isn't even enough."

"I agree Abenander," began Adella "and I think I know just the thing to repay Master Jared for saving Persha. Tell me Master Jared; are you affiliated with any guild at the moment?" Adella's eyes gave a predatory twinkle that made beads of sweat appear on Jared's forehead.

Persha looked at Adella then to Jared, eagerly waiting for his answer.

"Um…me Priestess? Well…I…I…um…no actually. In fact I've never even joined a guild."

"I see," continued Adella "and what would you say about joining Malacca?"

Abenander choked on his wine and was about to protest but Adella shot him a look that closed his mouth pre-sentence. These were one of the times Persha wasn't sure who was the guild master.

Adella looked at Persha "I'm told that we are short on bards, correct Persha?"

Persha nodded enthusiastically, too much for her own liking but there was no way to take it back now.

"You see Abenander this is a perfect opportunity for our guild. Sometimes I'm not sure if you actually understand the mechanics of being the guild master."

Persha gave Abenander a pleading look to back up Adella's argument.

"Fine! I accept. But what about you master Jared, would you like to be part of Malacca?"

Jared had the same surprised expression from the moment Adella brought up the topic of him joining and it didn't seem to be fading away. "Me, be one of the Red Stallions of Malacca? I couldn't possibly…surely…are you sure guild master?"

"Of course…I guess…Persha has indeed taken a shine to you so I'm told." His eyes drifted to Adella and back so quickly that Persha wasn't sure if she just imagined it. "We would be honored if you joined our guild; you have more than proved yourself with saving Persha's life."

"Very well, I accept. I am now part of the Red Stallions of Malacca." Said Jared putting fist to heart. A while ago Persha's face was bright now it was beyond blinding,


	6. Part 6

**Part 6 **

"Persha you'll be the one who'll guide Master Jared…or should I say Jared, now that he's one of us, through the guild house." Said Abenander. Persha immediately gave one of those smiles that he loved so much. She quickly took hold of the bard's arm and with a squeak disappeared out of the dining hall with him. Abenander looked towards his sister.

"Are you sure about this Adella? Something doesn't feel right about him."

"Of course I am, brother. You worry too much. I can see that both of them are on the brink of falling in love and both of us know that Persha needs that."

"Well, I hope you're right. The wars are over the horizon and other guilds do resort to other means of winning if you know what I mean." Abenander recognized the name "Suldam" from Adella's silent mouthing.

"Trust me brother. He watched over her like husband over his wife while she was unconscious and she kept speaking his name in her sleep, they're as near love as they can possibly get, I know it."

"I saw more of a vulture waiting for an animal lost in the desert to die rather than a loving husband."

"That is why my dear brother you are a man rather than a woman. The only thing we can do now is watch and wait."

Persha brought Jared to the member's apartments and showed him to his rooms. It was well sized with a canvas bed on one side, a yew wardrobe on the other, a desk with a set of high backed chairs and finally a mirrored washstand at the corner. "So how do you like it?" she asked.

"It's perfect." Answered Jared fingering the drapes hanging down from the canvas bed. "Just perfect."

Persha giggled but quickly clamped both hands over her mouth and made Jared smile. "Well…if you need anything just call for the servants around the hallways."

He nodded and she smiled at him "Well, goodnight then Jared."

"Good night Persha sweet dreams." He smiled back warmly as she closed the door.

Jared continued to smile in spite of himself. The dancer was very pretty and he felt a little sorry that he had to trick her, but it was his job and he was the best at it. But he really did feel sorry which felt strange to him. Jared pushed it out of his mind and quickly stripped out of his shirts and shoes and lay back on the bed. As he closed his eyes the image of Persha appeared and he fell asleep a smile quirking on his lips.

Jared awoke the next morning and found the first of the sun's rays spilling into his room. He got up and saw that his belongings were brought up and put into chests that were placed beside his bed.

He opened the first one and took out a set of his bard's uniform. Leaving the last button on the collar open, he walked out of the room and found Persha waiting outside his room.

"Good morning!" she said giddily

"Good morning to you too Persha. I hope you haven't been waiting too long for me to wake up."

"Not at all, I actually just arrived a few moments before you opened the door."

Jared smiled; Persha really was so pretty and sweet. He held out an arm for her and she took it without hesitation and they walked to the guildhall together.

"So what places in the guild house have you planned for me to see today?" asked Jared

"It's a surprise! But first we have to get to the guildhall; today all the new guild members will get a formal welcome into the guild."

Jared chuckled at the notion, in Suldam; let anybody see any weakness in you and you would end up somebody's manservant the rest of your guild life. You had to fight your way to the top till you were one of the upper members, then everybody lower than you would hate and envy you but wont act against you openly because of fear. On the other hand every body above you would think you a threat to their position and even try to sabotage you if your popularity went up even the slightest. The only thing that really kept Suldam together was fear of Lord Reginald and everybody else's ambition to be one of the top members.

Jared learned early in his life in the guild that if you tried to excel people would bring you down so that's why he turned into Suldam's top saboteur since quitting the guild meant death. Nobody within the guild knew who he was except Lord Reginald and a few choice members and more importantly nobody outside knew who he was either.

"We're here," said Persha releasing Jared's arm and disrupting his train of thought. Jared blinked a few more times to fully push himself back into reality and found them both in front of the great oak doors with the rearing stallion emboss that were much grander than those of the dining hall.

The doors swung open admitting both of them in the room. The room was large and spacious despite the whole guild population currently inside. The ceilings were vaulted and the floor was composed of white and red tiles that formed yet another rearing red stallion that covered the whole expanse.

Abenander was standing on the dais at the end of the room beside him stood Adella stunning as ever, though for some reason she always paled next to Persha in Jared's eyes.

Abenander stepped forward and the room quieted down for respect of the guild master. "It is another year that we keep our honor and our house." Began Abenander followed by cheers and shouts of "Toast for the guild master!" came from the veteran members while the newly recruited meekly stayed quiet. Abenander gave a chuckle before gesturing everyone to settle down again. "We have faced dangers with the odds against us yet we always have prevailed!" another round of cheers went up "The guild wars are upon us again and we face another war with the odds against us for our allies are dwindling as we speak. But I trust my guild…our guild to once again face whatever comes, remain steadfast and forever loyal! If we do this I have no doubt we will have another win on our hands!"

The cheers erupted again and this time louder than ever. Abenander raised his right fist in front of him in a sixty-degree angle from the floor; all the veterans did the same. The new members half raised their hands wondering if they should do the same including Jared. He looked uncertainly at Persha who had her fist already raised; she smiled at him and nodded her head slightly. Jared took it for an okay signal so he raised his fist as well.

Abenander began speaking the pledge of loyalty to the guild and was followed by everybody else.

Forth into war, the cavalry charges

_Every weapon I wield is for the honor of the guild_

_Every weapon I sheathe is for the honor of the guild _

_If my ally should die I shall take up his sword and fight with his honor_

_If I should die I trust my ally to take up my sword and fight with my honor_

_Red Stallions by brand, Red Stallions by heart_

Forth into war, the cavalry charges

When the pledge was finished every body cheered again and there were a couple of extra shouts of "For the honor of the Red Stallion!" and "Malacca shall be victorious again!"

Abenander quieted them again with a gesture before he spoke "It is time for us to welcome our new members who shall aid us in our purpose. May I request all the new members to come up to the dais?"

Persha smiled at Jared and whispered in his ear "It'll be okay." Jared smiled back at her, he was sure she didn't mean for him not to be worried about being caught but either way her words soothed him.

While Jared was walking to the dais he pulled out a flask from his pocket and emptied its contents into his mouth. There was an upside to having a guild house stationed in al de baran; they had easy access to all the alchemy products they needed. This particular experimental potion would hide his previous exposure to the Emperium of the Suldam guild so that no interference would be created when he joined Malacca.

He finally reached the dais and together with the other new members lined up in front of the guild master. A knight and a crusader walked unto the dais carrying a gilded golden box that was big enough that it made sense that two of them were needed to carry it.

"Thank you Corvus, Victor." Said Abenander to the Knight and the Crusader who bowed to him in turn. Abenander shifted his attention to the new recruits on the dais and began the guild chant.

Forth into war, the cavalry charges

_Every weapon I wield is for the honor of the guild_

_Every weapon I sheathe is for the honor of the guild _

_If my ally should die I shall take up his sword and fight with his honor_

_If I should die I trust my ally to take up my sword and fight with my honor_

_Red Stallions by brand, Red Stallions by heart_

Forth into war, the cavalry charges

As Jared absentmindedly repeated after Abenander he knew that his assignment had truly begun now but once again his eyes drifted to the crowd in search of Persha. He found her right up front smiling broadly at him as he took the pledge and he was struck with an emotion that was most dangerous for saboteur guilt; or maybe love.


	7. Part 7

**Part 7**

When the pledge was finished Abenander moved beside the gilded golden box and began clicking open the locks on the side. Adella did the same on the opposite face of the box. When all the locks were open Corvus and Victor took off the disconnected walls of the box revealing a glowing yellow crystal inside-the emperium.

Jared perfectly pulled off a fake look of surprise and awe as the emperium was revealed. Abenander placed his hand on the crystal and it glowed even brighter. Suddenly swathes of light began erupting from the jewel and veiling the new recruits with some form of energy. Jared took a gulp silently praying that the potion would work. In a matter of seconds the light around him compressed into a ball and entered through his chest. There was a split second when he felt he had been dunked in a pool of crushed ice but it quickly faded leaving him gasping for breathe. Jared had experienced this before with joining Suldam but having experience it once didn't prepare you very much for the second time.

"Welcome brothers and sisters, you are now Red Stallions." Said Abenander though his mouth didn't open showing that the guild telepathic link was established.

Abenander turned to the crowd and officially opened the celebration. Music erupted in the room and the scullions burst in performing a more elaborate dance than before.

Jared immediately rushed to Persha and she gave him a light hug "You're one of us now!" she said giddily.

"Yeah I can't believe it myself. Jared Shaw, Red Stallion!" replied Jared. Persha's smile widened before she pulled him towards two people whom he recognized as the knight and the crusader.

"Victor, Corvus!" called Persha getting both the men's attention "I'd like you to meet Jared. He's my new ensemble partner."

Victor, the crusader was the taller and the wider of the two; he had dark violet hair that Jared could only describe as unruly. Corvus on the other hand had auburn colored hair that reached to the nape of his neck and he sported a short cut beard. The two armored men eyed Jared from head too toes without saying a word. Little beads of sweat would have begun forming on Jared's forehead if he wasn't trained to hide it. Corvus slowly stepped up and even though he was a few inches shorter than Jared, managed to seem to be the one looking down. The Knight's face was so close now that Jared felt as if a bloodhound was sniffing him. Corvus raised his gauntleted hand over his head and Jared braced himself for a blow if he ever so one coming.

Too his surprise, and relief, Corvus' hand clamped down on his shoulder and the Knight gave a boisterous laugh and began hugging and welcoming him. "Persha you've managed to get yourself a rather decent catch here!" said the Knight jokingly. "You'd better watch him or I'd be able to persuade him to train for a swordsman and become a knight!"

Persha pouted her lips and her hold on Jared tightened defensively "Jared won't be a swordsman Corvus, he's my bard and he won't exchange it for anything else! Right Jared?"

"Um…yes…0…of course."

"She's a fiery one there, Jared." Began the Crusader "But all of us love her, we hope you will too soon." Victor put different tone with his last few words that Jared had difficulty catching. Jared felt embarrassed and he looked at Persha. She looked up at him at the same moment and an awkward silence began between them. They were beginning to blush when a voice from the crowd yelled Persha's name.

An emerald-haired sage began running towards them. Her hair reached to the small of her back and she wore silver rimmed glasses. She had a sort of scholarly beauty that was somehow enhanced by the slight ink stains on her cheeks, probably from scratching her face after writing scroll after scroll like sages do all the time.

"Look Persha, Rhozen finally asked me!" squealed the sage while waving a ringed finger in front of Persha.

"Oh my goodness Maharet, that diamond is gigantic! Rhozen's salary at the Geffenese academy must be enormous to afford that." Said Persha giddily.

"He didn't even buy it!" said Maharet tears of joy beginning to appear on her eyes. "He said that he couldn't find any jeweler who had one big enough to be what I deserved, so he began hunting for this!" The two women sighed in unison.

Victor cleared his throat to get the women's attention before he spoke "Congratulations Maharet, he are very happy for you. We must find Rhozen and congratulate him as well, come now Corvus."

"It's about time if you ask me" said Corvus as they turned and began to walk "Rhozen was beginning to get silver-haired with all that time he delayed."

"His hair has always been silver, Corvus," replied Victor, as the rest of their conversation was lost in the crowd.

"You have to excuse me as well Persha," said Maharet "I have to tell Adella and Lucia about the good news!" the sage immediately took off in search for the people she mentioned.

Persha was smiling as she watched the sage run off. "You see, our other guild mate, Rhozen finally proposed to her."

"I figured as much. She does seem to be happy."

"I know, all of us have been waiting for this too happen. You'd think a powerful wizard like Rhozen would have more self-confidence. Oh I wish somebody would love me like that." Persha sighed again before she realized what she had said and a look of horror replaced her smile "Oh, I didn't mean you! Well…it's not that I wouldn't like it to be you! It could be you if you wanted!" she continued a series of stutters and unintelligible explanations before Jared burst out laughing and Persha began to blush harder than ever.

"Relax, Persha" said Jared with a slight giggle in his voice "Just don't think about that now. Who knows maybe it will be me in the future? I wouldn't mind, in fact I think I'd like to be the one." Jared smiled and offered his arm and Persha took and together they walked towards the balcony.

The sky was cloudless that night, and the shining crescent moon that was just beginning to wax accented it. Jared and Persha stepped out into the balcony and the outside air immediately hushed the noise from the gathering inside. A cold gust swept past the guild house and caused. Instinctively Persha folded her arms over herself to block out the cold. A jacket immediately was swathed over Persha's shoulders. She looked up at Jared and saw that he was only wearing his thin-fabric shirt and that his bard's jacket was on her shoulders. She fingered the ends of the jacket as she spoke. "Aren't you going to be cold?" she asked not making any eye contact.

Jared smiled at her "Maybe if we cuddled I won't be so cold."

Persha giggled and wrapped her arms around Jared's waist and laid her head on his chest. Jared's hand rested on her shoulder and they stared at the night sky. The moment was quickly brought to halt when a metallic click came from behind them.

Persha and Jared turned their heads and saw a blue-haired blacksmith leaning on the wall beside the door. There was a cigarette in her mouth and a metal lighter held in her hand. She gave no sign that she knew she was already seen.

"What are you doing here Lucia?" asked Persha. Realizing her arms were still wrapped around Jared's waist she immediately took them off and folded the jacket around her as much as it would go.

"I wanted to get away from the party inside; you know how I am with social gatherings." Replied the blacksmith "Then the two of you came out a minute later."

"I'm sorry Lucia, we didn't see you." Said Persha embarrassedly

"The way both of you were lovey-dovey you wouldn't have noticed if a hurricane destroyed anything I front of you." The black smith walked towards them then held out a hand for Jared "I'm Lucia Otreibal, third in command of Malacca."

Jared shook her hand politely and introduced himself in turn.

"Listen here Jared, if you break our little Persha's heart I'll break your legs." Said Lucia as if stating what she had for breakfast. Jared was stunned and looked at the black smith not knowing what to answer back. "I'm going to bed now Persha. Both of you don't stay up too late." With that Lucia turned around and exited the balcony.

"Don't let her get to you Jared." Comforted Persha "She was just joking."

"Her expression was serious enough for me I think I won't take any chances. I will never break your heart." They looked at each other for a while before Persha wrapped her arms around Jared's waist and Jared stroked her hair gently. The moon was now at the peek of it's brightness and a beam of it descended down on both of them as if giving a sign that they were supposed to be together.


	8. Part 8

_I'm sorry for the extremely late update. I couldn't get my hands on any computer to type it on._ Part 8 

Jared woke up the next morning with a sharp pain in his chest. It wasn't any medical condition it was just that as much as he didn't want to admit it to himself, he was falling for Persha. All his emotional training and experience with his previous sabotage missions couldn't prepare him for this. His emotions were mixed and confusing, anger because he thought himself failed in dulling his emotions, happy because he had met someone like Persha, hesitant in completing his mission and anxious if he should hurt Persha's feeling by telling her the truth.

The Bard clutched his chest and went through a couple of breathing exercises to calm him down. His training of resisting emotional attachment to someone had failed him. He couldn't help himself when he was around Persha, his face would heat up, his chest would lighten and he'd start smiling whenever he would think of her.

It started while she was unconscious. Saga's plan went perfectly, though they had lost two of their numbers, the setup allowed him to save her and begin his infiltration of the guild. He arrived at the guild entrance carrying Persha's unconscious body, the poison was starting to blacken her arm and she was beginning to convulse. The gate guards recognized her immediately and let him enter. She was carried to the medical ward while he was questioned. After lying his way through the questions, it was decided that he could be trusted to some extent and he was allowed to see Persha. He agreed and he was escorted to her room. She was asleep and her arm was bandaged, her face was peaceful and very beautiful. He stayed in the room and was lost with her features and the hours just passed without him knowing.

Jared released his hold on his chest and looked down on the bed sheets. There were rips on sheets, which meant he had clawed at them again while he was having one of his nightmares. What caught his attention though, was the jacket he lent Persha hanging from the ladder backed-chair and that he wasn't drenching in sweat as he usually did after his nightmares. Jared smiled once he realized Persha had gone into his room last night and stayed with him through his nightmare.

After Jared pulled on a shirt he walked towards the dining hall. He couldn't find Persha anywhere though he recognized the emerald-haired sage who was eating with a silver-haired wizard. Jared walked up to them and the sage smiled once she had recognized him.

"Good morning!" greeted Jared. The two greeted him back cheerfully. "Do you know where I can find Persha? I have to…er…that is I want to thank her." The two gave each other a questioning look before the wizard spoke smiling shrewdly. "Persha usually dances in the King's Cavalry Inn, You may find her there."

"Thank you," answered Jared, giving a slight nod of the head in appreciation out of both telling him where to find her and second for not asking more about the subject.

Jared exited through the front gates of the guild house and began to walk towards the city's plaza and from there ask directions to the King's Cavalry Inn.

The streets were as crowded as ever and the vendors over exaggerated the cheapness or quality of their wares on their signs. Jared approached a female merchant who was selling an assortment of flowers. One rose that was encased in a glass case caught Jared's attention. It made him think of Persha immediately.

"How much for that rose?" Jared inquired, pointing to the glass case.

The merchant smiled toothily and opened the glass case. "This here is very valuable." She said reaching for the rose inside the open case. "It's a rare wither less rose, it'll stay as beautiful and flawless as the day you see her now. This will cost you around one million five thousand, and that's already cheap mind you."

Jared knew better than to take a solitary merchant's word for the price of a particular ware, but to know how much a wither less rose was exactly; he would have to scour every other shop who was selling it by chance, and he simply didn't have time for that.

He handed the merchant her zeny and took the rose. As Jared was walking away he felt like he was cheated and decided he could at least ask her where the King's Cavalry was. He turned around and caught the merchant with a sneer. She quickly tried to smooth out her face but made a poor job of it.

"Could you tell where to find the King's Cavalry inn?" asked Jared pushing the merchant's sneer out of his mind. The merchant enthusiastically answered Jared's question and even drew him a map. Jared suspected she did this because she actually did cheat him for the rose, at this point he felt his pouch was lighter than ever.

Following the merchant's map Jared found himself in front of a larger than average inn. The swinging sign outside displayed three knights mounted on Peco-pecos following a crowned man who had absolutely no resemblance to the real King of Prontera.

Jared entered the inn and immediately saw Persha in the middle of her dance. He quickly found himself a table at the front rows. Everybody was entranced with her, she moved from one movement to another effortlessly. Jared remembered the first time he had seen her dance. At that time he didn't appreciate her skill as he did now since his mind was on his sabotage mission. Though now, he saw how great she was and his feelings for her were strengthening with each flick of her wrist or twist of her hips.

Persha glanced towards his direction and he slightly waved at her. She gave a split-second expression of surprise that was replaced by one of her beautiful smiles. Her dance continued for a couple more minutes before she ended with a standing ovation from everybody in the room. Persha curtsied quickly before she went on stage and directly to Jared.

"I can't believe it. What are you doing here?" she asked smiling

"I wanted to see you." Replied Jared. At that moment he felt the pain in his chest that he felt this morning return. He tried to perform his breathing exercises again, but every inhalation only caused quick stabs of pain. He had poured all his hidden affection for Persha into his words of wanting to see her and for a moment he had forgotten all about his mission and was lost in her eyes. He saw all the love she had for him and fully realized all the love he had for her. The urge to tell her everything was unbearable and it sapped him of his strength trying to fight it. He was afraid, afraid of what would happen to him once Lord Reginald found out, and even more afraid to hurt Persha and have to watch her cry, knowing it was his fault.

Persha began to sense something was bothering Jared. "Jared, are you okay? Is there something wrong?"

Jared quickly fixed his expression into a calm and happy one and said the truest thing he could say at the moment, since he could not bear to tell her one more lie. "You are so beautiful."

Persha wrapped her arms around Jared's "Come on Jared, let's take a walk."

They exited Prontera's much less crowded east exit. For a little while they followed the trail until Persha pulled Jared into the forest and they found themselves in a little clearing. In the clearing was a small park filled with flowers, a little marble fountain and two benches.

"I found this place the first time I joined Malacca," said Persha "It was ruined and forgotten so I decided to fix it up and have it as my own special place."

Jared could only admire the little park Persha had created. He wondered what it had looked like before.

"It's beautiful." Jared replied. Persha lead him towards the fountain and together they sat down on the marble rim. Persha ran her fingers through the water. "I come here whenever I need to get away from the life in the city, or to think about things."

"What do you think about?" asked Jared eager to learn more about Persha

"My mom, how she was like. She died giving birth to me. I never had a chance to know her."

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to remind you." Said Jared feeling very ashamed of himself and looking away from Persha.

Jared felt Persha's hand ouch his and he turned his head. Persha was looking at him, smiling. "It's nice to have someone to talk to about her for once." She said reassuringly. "My dad always said she was the most beautiful and kindest woman he had ever come to meet. She was a dancer as well, you know. That's why I decided to pick the same job class- to be like her.

"I didn't know your mom, but I think you are exactly like her; the most beautiful and kindest person I have ever come to meet."

Persha smiled the warmest and most affectionate smile Jared had ever seen her with. She bent towards Jared's face and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you Jared."

Jared smiled back before he cupped her face with both his hands and kissed her on the lips. Between them time seemed lost in the park. They talked about each other and revealed things they hadn't revealed to anybody else.

The sky was orange and the sun was beginning to set when they realized they were still outside. "Oh no," squealed Persha "It's getting late. We better get back to the guild house."

The two of them entered the city. The street lamps were already opened and the merchants had packed up for the night. They made their way through the empty streets without anything happening aside from a stray dog that barked at them.

They reached the guild house and Jared escorted Persha to her room. He stayed outside the doorway while she entered. "Goodnight Jared, I really enjoyed us spending time together."

"Me too Persha, see you tomorrow." He kissed her on the cheek and waited for her to do anything. When she didn't he smiled and turned to leave but Persha caught his arm.

"Please don't leave." She said

"Never,' replied Jared.

Persha smiled and they kissed, loosing themselves in each other's arms.


	9. Part 9

_Disclaimer: I do not own the song "If I never knew you" by Disney OST Pocahontas. I just really like the song and thought it appropriate for the story._

Part 9

Persha woke up in the middle of the night and Jared was no longer beside her but there was a beautiful rose on the pillow where he had slept. She picked up the rose and draped the blanket around her chest and bellow. A faint sound of a mandolin being played echoed around the halls of the guild house. Persha stepped out of the room, rose still in hand and followed it. The mandolin led her towards the veranda in that level of the guild house.

The cold marble of the guild house that she felt on her bare feet changed into dew-wet grass as she exited into the veranda. She found Jared was sitting on the ledge and that he was the source of the mandolin's tune.

As she walked up to him, a cold gust of night air blew through the veranda and cut through the thin blankets she turned into makeshift robes, thus making her exhale loudly. Jared stopped playing his mandolin and placed it under his arm. He spoke without turning to her. "I'm sorry, did I wake you?" he asked.

Persha approached beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder. "No you didn't, I woke up and you weren't there anymore."

Jared finally turned to her and spotted the wither less rose she clutched to her breast. He touched the rose's petal with the tips of his fingers. "I forgot to give it to you during the afternoon," he said "I also forgot to thank you."

"What for?" asked Persha, trying to seem as if she didn't know anything Jared was talking about.

Jared smiled reproachfully as he looked at her. The silver of the moon was bathing her in a sort of luminescence that took his breath away. They followed the lines of her face and body wherever they touched her and every time her yellow-eyes would catch the moonlight they looked like drops of liquid gold.

"I now you stayed with me during my nightmare," he began " I have one almost every night. I left the room before I had one tonight, I didn't want to wake you."

Persha wanted to ask Jared what pain he experienced to have such nightmares. She truly had stayed with him that night; he clawed at his sheets and flung his arms in the air, as if he was trying to defend himself from unseen assailants. He kept repeating the phrase "I'm sorry," over and over again. The only thing Persha could do was hold his hand and stay with him through the night.

Respecting Jared's silence about what his dreams contained, she decided to change the subject. "What song were you playing on your mandolin?" she asked, "It was beautiful. It reminded me of the song my father sang to me before. It was nothing like it, but still it reminded me."

"Every bard has his own song," explained Jared, in an oratory tone of voice "They know the tune, rhythm and the words of this song from the moment they play their first instrument as a bard. Though, the song isn't finished. The bard will never be able to finish it until they found the one they're supposed to sing their song to. Some bard's songs are for themselves, others find the person in a matter of months or years, and sadly there are few you never find the person to whom their song belongs to, like me. I feel… no, I know that I will never have the chance to find the one I will sing my song to." Jared closed his eyes and tried to hold back the tears that he had kept ever since he realized he would never finish his song.

"Can I hear it?" asked Persha, sitting on the ledge of the veranda to face Jared.

"Well…Like I said, it isn't finished and will never be finished. " said Jared, taking his mandolin from under his arms and holding it against his chest defensively.

"It's okay, I just want to hear it again, to remind me of my father.' Persha insisted. "Not all beautiful things have to be complete Jared."

Jared smiled uneasily before he positioned his mandolin properly and began strumming the chords. The sound from his mandolin began resonating in the night air and all the clouds parted allowing the crescent moon to illuminate them both. Then, Jared began his song.

_If I never knew you_

_If I never felt this love_

_I would have no inkling of_

_How precious life can be_

_And if I never held you I would never have a clue_

_How at last I'd find in you the missing part of me_

_In this world so full of fear_

_Full of rage and lies_

_I can see the truth so clear_

_In your eyes so dry your eyes_

_And I'm so grateful to you_

_I'd have lived my whole life through_

_Lost forever, if I never knew you_

_If I never knew you_

_I'd be safe but half as real_

_Never knowing I could feel_

_A love so strong and true_

_I'm so grateful to you_

_I'd have lived my whole life through_

_Lost forever, if I never knew you_

_I thought our love would be so beautiful_

_Somehow we made the whole world bright_

_I never knew that fear and hate could be so strong_

_All they'd leave us where these whispers in the night_

_But still my heart is singing we were right_

_If I never knew you_

_If I never knew this love_

_I would have no inkling of_

_How precious life can be_

_There's no moment I regret_

_Since the moment that we met_

_If our time has gone too fast I've lived at last..._

_I thought our love would be so beautiful_

_Somehow we'd make the whole world bright_

_I thought our love would be so beautiful_

_We'd turn the darkness into light_

_And still my heart is singing we were right_

_We were right And If I never knew you_

_I'd have lived my whole life through_

_Empty as the sky_

_Never knowing why_

_Lost forever if I never knew you_

Jared strummed the last chords and looked at Persha. Persha was staring at him her eyes tearing a little from the emotions the song had formed in her. To Jared the silence seemed like an eternity before she spoke. She wiped the tears from her eyes with her finger and said. "That truly was the most beautiful thing I heard Jared. I hope you find the person you're suppose to sing it to so you can finish your song."

Jared looked into Persha's eyes; his eyes began to tear from his emotions as well. In a whispering voice he answered Persha. "I just did, I finally found the one who my song is for, you."

Persha smiled and her tears of joy streamed down her face. She hugged Jared and kissed him as passionately as only lover can do.

She whispered in his ear "I love you,'

He whispered back "I love you to,'


	10. Part 10

_If you want to compare this chapter, to chapter 3, it shows how completely opposite each guild master is from the other._ Part 10 

The warm fall breeze swept through Prontera and into the Malacca guild house. Abenander Sutorin stood at the terrace waving at everybody who glanced up the terrace. The breeze touched his face and he savored the refreshing feeling it gave.

There was a knock on the door and a servant cheerfully entered the study. "Good morning guild master. Master Sonon has arrived. "

"Let him enter, Mikhael," replied Abenander turning and smiling at the servant cheerfully.

The servant smiled back and bowed leaving the room. In a few seconds an assassin entered, his mask was pulled below his chin exposing his smile

"Our guild smiles too much," said Abenander jokingly, and not noticing that even he was still smiling.

"I don't see any problem with that," said Sonon, throwing a bottle of wine across the room. Abenander caught it by the neck effortlessly then popped open the cork.

"I guess you're right," he said pouring a glass for each of them.

"So, what's the reason you had me called here?" asked Sonon receiving the glass across the table. Abenander didn't answer immediately, He swirled the wine in his glass a couple or so times before he spoke.

"I'm not sure if I'm even supposed to be asking you this, Sonon" said Abenander the smile sinking to a frown. "What do you know about our new guild mate, Jared Shaw?"

"Pretty much everything everybody else knows, He's been with us for about two months now and so far he's been doing really well. Our intelligence network says he's a very reliable source of information. The other bards are in awe of his skills, he seems to be getting along with everyone even more so for Persha." Sonon drank from his glass after his report on Jared.

"So you're saying he's perfect?" asked Abenander apprehensively

"I guess that word works, depending on what you mean by perfect. Though, as a guild mate that word would sum up everything about him." Answered Sonon beginning to get confused at why Abenander had called him here.

"Would you say a little bit too perfect?" asked Abenander even more apprehensively than his last question.

Sonon laid his glass on the table and drew his head nearer to Abenander, "Let's get to the point Abenander, and don't circle me around with questions. Something about Jared is bothering you, tell me what it is."

Abenander kept silent for a while, occasionally opening his mouth to say something, but then pursing it back tighter than before. It was a minute of silence before Sonon stood up and headed for the door. "Abenander if you can't tell me anything other than that, I don't think I can help you." He opened the door and prepared to leave but Abenander called after him to stop.

"I can't shake the feeling something sinister is about him." He paused trying to look for the right words to say, " Is there anything about him that isn't normal? Any thing he does that nobody knows about?"

Sonon closed the door and spoke "Four times," began Sonon "Four times, he has left the guild house without telling anybody. Our eyes and ears around the city have reported to have seen him in the streets but then we loose track of him in the deeper parts of town." Sonon stopped at this and waited for Abenander to say something.

"Anything else?" asked Abenander.

"No," replied Sonon.

"Sonon, follow him. Find out where he goes, don't be seen." Sonon nodded his head and exited the room.

Jared Shaw, thought Sonon. Every veteran member in the guild had always hoped for someone to love Persha, Abenander and Lucia the most. When this bard had appeared everybody was thrilled. Abenander was right to choose the word perfect for him. Sonon had to agree, but now _too perfect_ kept echoing in his head. There was something about Jared Shaw that nobody could see and he was going to find out.


	11. Part 11

Part 11 

There was nothing but blackness everywhere. Jared floated in the middle of that infinite abyss. The place was illuminated with a light that seemed to come from no apparent source. Jared knew this place…it was his nightmare.

A figure moved at his side walking like a wraith. The figure, in fact, looked like a wraith, skin with no tone, eyes with no life. Jared knew who this was; it was the first person that he had brought down with his saboteur skills.

Turian Nogard was a bard…Jared's teacher. They had both belonged to the Suldam guild under Lord Irutalde. Turian had long since wanted to change Suldam, turn it into a guild of virtue and honor rather than the tyrannous and malevolent one in Irutalde's hands. He had planned an underground rebellion within Suldam to usurp Irutalde from his position. Everything had gone according to plan until Lord Reginald had somehow gotten wind of the rebellion and summoned Jared to his quarters.

Like the loyal subordinate he was, Jared diligently obeyed. He entered the quarters of the cold-hearted knight and found that another man had come before him. An oily-haired rogue only known as Sikhak, which was not his real name, stood beside Lord Reginald. They stared at Jared like predators about to pounce on an unwary prey.

"I understand you are a pupil of Turian's correct," said+ Lord Reginald, clapping his hands together as he leaned on his desk.

"Yes, guild master." Answered Jared submissively to the man. Lord Reginald's eyebrows shot up with satisfaction or suspicion, Jared could never tell.

"What would you say if I told you that I know of his underground rebellion?" asked Lord Reginald leaning back on his tall backed armchair. At this point Sikhak had drawn a Damascus and began sharpening it in front of him, an act of intimidation; the weak willed would have broken by now. Every whisk of the stone through the blade broke the silence in the room. Jared remained steadfast an avoided to have his gaze hover at the Damascus.

Jared didn't know anything of any rebellion; he suspected Turian had kept him in the dark protect him, not knowing that this situation was probable. "I know nothing of a rebellion, guild master." Said Jared honestly " And I assure you that Master Turian is loyal only to you my lord."

Lord Reginald met Jared eye to eye before he suddenly pointed a gauntleted finger at him. In less than a second Sikhak had rushed to Jared, kicked him in the stomach and held the Damascus at his neck. Lord Reginald walked towards him, his heavy boots thumping on the carpet.

He forced Jared's mouth open and poured a vial of clear liquid down his throat. Jared, thinking it was poison decided to die a quiet painless death rather than have his throat slit but to his surprise he didn't die.

Sikhak pushed him down the visitor's chair and stood guard beside him while Lord Reginald took his place back on his armchair. The knight had a sneer on his face and he positioned his hands like a pyramid over his mouth.

"Now, my young bard," began Lord Reginald. "Let's hope you were telling the truth, for your life's sake. Tell me everything you know about Turian Nogard."

The vial had contained a potion to make Jared tell the truth against his will. He told Lord Reginald everything he knew, proving that he knew nothing of rebellion but revealing that over the last few months Turian had been talking to certain members of the guild and made it a point to leave Jared out of their conversations.

Once the questioning was over Jared collapsed on the floor gasping "No more. Please, no more." That was when Lord Reginald walked up to him and tasked him his first saboteur mission, to destroy Turian's underground rebellion.

Jared succeeded in his mission; Turian was killed together with the other leaders of the faction, frightening the other members into hiding or suicide. After that Lord Reginald was so impressed with Jared's natural skills at sabotage that he had Sikhak, who turned out to be the guild's previous saboteur, killed and replaced with Jared.

That started Jared on his new life. Sabotaging all of Suldam's enemies being responsible for the deaths of now fifty-three people. He had this dream to remember them all. Every night a reminder of what he was, whom he turned into.

In the dream Turian had stopped walking and was staring at Jared in that black abyss. _Why Jared?_ The words echoed in the darkness in Turian's voice. Suddenly another man appeared and walked beside Turian and the same words echoed in the darkness now in that man's voice. Jared didn't know how many times he kept saying sorry. All fifty-three people started appearing out of nowhere and taking their places around him all asking him. _Why?_

Turian Nogard, Noitima Aujourd, C'est Taohl, Royem Kapkalap, Etney Wabalak…The Litany of fifty-three names played over and over again in his head.

Suddenly a new figure appeared facing away from Jared. He recognized her immediately as Persha and she began to turn around. Jared couldn't bear to see her as lifeless as the other people. He desperately tried to close his eyes but his body wouldn't follow him. Just when he was about to see her face he woke up drenched in sweat and panting.

That was his worse dream yet, on the verge to see Persha lifeless, it was too much for him. He quickly washed himself, got dressed and headed for the guild entrance.

Jared reached the guild gates and the doorman asked him if he wanted to let anybody now where he was going. Jared gave him a dismissive wave of his hand and continued towards his secretive destination, oblivious to the fact he was being followed, but that's the way it is with assassins, you never know they're following you until it's too late.

Sonon moved through the walls like a swimmer through water, silent and incessant in following Jared. Finally, they entered the business district of Prontera, which by now was flooded with vendors and customers. All the voices were blending with each other combined with the clanks from smithies, explosions from nearby alchemists' shops and the endless racket from the livestock being sold.

Jared turned down a narrow alley and this was when he realized something was in the wrong. As a bard, he was trained in the art of listening as a means of sight, by listening to the echo of sounds he could form images in his head of his current surroundings and beyond, much like a bat. He could have walked his way through the business district with his eyes closed by listening to the reverberations of sound. Now that he was alone in the alley he realized someone was following him, but there was no one to be seen, at least with eyes. Jared realized now that there had been a presence in the walls that changed the sound while he was walking in the business district, too small to notice unless you really concentrated on that spot. Now that he was isolated the reverberations showed him that there was indeed a man going through the walls unseen, and following him.

_Assassin_ Jared thought to himself. Obviously this assassin had faith in his stealth skills enough to try to follow a bard, knowing that bards could see as much with sound as with sight, probably more. But Jared didn't notice the assassin until they were isolated meaning that this assassin was truly skilled.

From a nearby smithy the hammer fell down unto the white-hot iron laid on the anvil creating a loud clang of metal that rang all the way to the alley. That was all Jared needed, the sound created and image of the assassin so close to Jared that he could have reached and touched the assassin if he chose to right now.

Jared placed his fingers on the strings of his mandolin and pretended to not be aware about the assassin's presence. Slowly he started strumming three notes continuously, sending vibrations of sound everywhere.

This assassin was right to trust in his stealth skills, Jared full attention was focused on the man. A slight distraction would make him loose this man and possibly never be able to find him again.

Jared's fingers were strumming the chords so fast that a constant stream of sound was being bombarded around him. The assassin by now had realized his presence was detected and pulled of a trick of his own by vibrating himself as quickly as his agile body could allow and thus distorting the frequencies around the area. Apparently this assassin knew how to handle bards.

Jared and this assassin were so evenly matched; the assassin couldn't completely disappear from Jared while Jared couldn't pinpoint the assassin's exact location unless he managed to get near enough to touch the man, who stayed a good distance away.

The unusual chase had brought them to a road where the cobblestones where completely gone. This far deep in Prontera the law didn't exist anymore; the cobblestones were probably stolen and sold leaving only the dirt underneath

Jared took his position in the middle of the road and continued to play the stream of the three notes. The assassin was still somewhere around him, not prepared to give up the chase. A stray gust of wind blew through the alley and lifted a light puff of dust that gave Jared an idea. He quickly change the position of his fingers and with one strum created a shockwave of sound that brought up the dust giving him a shroud of sand to escape. He masked the sound of his feet by manipulating the sound waves around him and making it seem three different people had ran down three different alleyways. Jared ran as far as he could until he was sure he had lost the assassin.

When the dust cleared Sonon stood beside the wall of a building. He didn't expect Jared to pull off a trick like that. The kid truly was skilled in his art; even managing to notice his presence and keep it up even after Sonon had disrupted the frequencies around them. During the instance when the dust cloud went up Sonon was about to use his grimtooth, but yet again Jared got the better of him. He couldn't even tell the three runners apart. The kid had gotten the best of him and managed to escape and still there was no proof of the kid doing anything wrong. He ran from Sonon yes, but the assassin never revealed himself as a guild mate, would the young bard have stopped if he did? There were to many riddles still hidden in the dark. Sonon made his way back to guild house knowing this chase was futile to continue.


	12. Part 12

Part 12 

A rickety old building stood deep in an alley somewhere inside East Prontera. Some signs of the white paint that had been on its walls still showed but most were scraped off or soiled by the dirty environment to a dingy gray. There were multiple cracks on the tiled roof that were merely covered with waxed cloth in case of rain.

For the poorer masses in Prontera this was the most they could afford, treating it as the higher ups treated the better-known inns such as the King's Cavalry. A rusty sign creakily swung in the wind, most of the picture was faded away but the name had been crudely repainted identifying the inn as the "Winning Horse". Fitting for the people who lived in these parts, loosing hope that they'd get the better things in life through hard work so they relied on sheer dumb luck, which was often a cruel mistress.

Jared went in the establishment; there were no more than five roughly dressed men in solitary tables drinking from dirty mugs. The innkeeper had his eyes on Jared since the moment Jared entered the door. He hoarsely called from across the room "Is there anything I can get you sir?" Jared took one look at the dirty glass the innkeeper was wiping with an equally dirty cloth and shook his head.

Jared walked up to the man. "But… I am looking for a certain friend, a certain Mr. Sinel," whispered Jared quietly enough so that only the innkeeper and himself could hear.

The innkeeper looked at him for a moment, as if wondering what a perfectly respectable bard was doing in an inn like his. "Third room upstairs," he answered. Jared thanked him with a nod of his head and pushed twenty zeny across the counter, which the innkeeper took much to earnestly for Jared's liking.

The boards creaked noisily as Jared walked through the upper floor towards the third door. He knocked three times on the door and somebody inside opened it only far enough to show half his face. The man was Shaga.

"You're late Jared," said the assassin in a frustrated tone and still refusing to open the door fully.

"I'm sorry, Shaga. I ran into some…um…trouble on the way." Began Jared leaning on the door " Somebody followed me."

Shaga opened the door and looked around the hallway for a sign of anybody eavesdropping on them. It was a good minute or so till he was satisfied. "So I take it you lost him right?" asked Shaga.

Jared gave a little chuckle and patted the assassin on the back. "Shaga, do you really think I'd go here if I wasn't sure he wasn't following me anymore."

Shaga studied him looking for anything out of the ordinary before he answered. "I guess not. Come, this matter is not safe to discuss in hallways." "Shaga stepped aside and let Jared enter. He took one look at the empty hallway before he closed the door behind them.

Jared took a chair while Shaga looked out the window and searched again. "Do you know who was following you?" asked Shaga not taking his eyes away from the window.

"He was an assassin, and got very close to me before I noticed him" said Jared, "he never left his cloaking so I didn't manage to identify who he was."

"Do you suspect he was from Malacca," asked Shaga finally turning to face Jared. His eyes were serious and boring into Jared's skull for answers.

Jared placed his hand on his chin and thought. It could have been. He was indeed taking longer than usual with this particular sabotage mission. He knew that he was on the good side of the entire guild. Even cold Lucia had taken a certain shine on him, which meant she didn't shove him when they crossed paths in the guildhalls. But still, the longer it took the higher the risks that he would be found out. Jared ran his hand through his hair and tried to think of what to do.

"You're taking much to long with this mission," said Shaga as if he was reading Jared's mind. "What's keeping you? Don't tell me the great master saboteur has lost his touch." Shaga gave a chuckle of morbid amusement.

"Don't dream to early Shaga," replied Jared beginning to get irritated "It's just that I had underestimated Persha in the beginning. Getting to her is as hard as catching smoke with your bare hands." The lie rolled off Jared's tongue perfectly. He met Shaga eye to eye to make more convincing and he waited for the assassin to speak back with some droll remark.

Indeed Shaga gave another morbid chuckle and this time pounding his fist on the window ledge once. "I distinctly remember you saying that you'd…what was that? Play her like your mandolin, was it? My dear master saboteur it seems like you're the one being played, that dancer girl has got you dancing with her hasn't she?"

Shaga's words managed to penetrate through Jared's shield of coolness. Jared did remember him saying that he would play Persha like his mandolin and his own words hurt him. He couldn't bear to have himself hurt Persha; it would be like tearing his own heart from his chest, no worse.

"Don't be idiotic Shaga, a woman wouldn't be able to break my defenses. Years of training have numbed my emotions," again the lie just rolled off "Tell lord Ituralde that I don't know when I will be able to complete this mission. This meeting is over, I'm going back."

Jared stood up and headed for the door and just when he was about to turn the latch Shaga spoke from behind him. "That message is virtually impossible for me to relay to lord Ituralde," he said

"Why not?" asked Jared coldly,

Shaga chuckled a third time and it was really getting to Jared. That laugh that seemed to tell everybody that Shaga enjoyed seeing others in pain. If Jared was a man of weak will a fight would have broken between both of them right now.

"Lord Reginald has been getting very impatient, impatient being an understatement. He has already killed three serving men this month out of frustration over you taking too long in sabotaging Malacca. He gave you until the end of the month, Suldam is already preparing for war first light on guild wars we attack already."

Jared was clutching the door latch so tightly from anger that his knuckles were turning white. He was using all his energy to keep from taking his anger out on the assassin.

"End of the month Jared, do you understand," said Shaga

Jared turned the knob and stepper out of the door "Yes," he said icily before he slammed it shut behind him.


	13. Part 13

Part 13 

Jared desperately tried to make his way back to the Malacca guild house; his heart was in so much pain that he couldn't think straight. His breathing was ragged and how he still managed to determine the correct direction towards the guild house was anybody's guess.

One month, that was all he had. In a month he was made to choose between Persha and his own guild. The skies darkened and the scent of rain filled the air of Prontera. All the vendors began to pack their merchandise, in fear of them getting wet, leaving Jared alone in the streets in moments. The rain fell like a sudden sheet of ice but Jared didn't notice any part of it. He stared at his reflection on the puddle that was forming at his feet. Was this his life? Cursed to be alone forever? Not allowed to love or be loved? With Persha, he thought that something else might have been possible, that his life would somehow not be so sad. Now, it seemed that fate had twisted it back to it's intended course- him being alone.

Jared fell to his knees, the rain beating own on his neck. He felt as if the weight of his problems was trying to crush him into the ground with every droplet that fell. He stared into the puddle again as Lord Irutalde's figure appeared behind his reflection holding a silver leash in his hands. Lord Irutalde attempted to lock the leash around Jared's neck but Jared punched the image through the puddle and destroyed the figment of his imagination.

"I am not leashed to Suldam! I'm not your dog anymore Irutalde." Hissed Jared after the image that had disappeared at his blow. "Persha means more to me than my life, than my guild." Jared turned around and headed back towards the Winning Horse.

He kicked open the entrance surprising everybody in the establishment. The strong-arm who was sitting on a stool beside the door stood up and flexed his muscles in front of Jared as a form of intimidation. The innkeeper eyes him venomously before speaking. "You're friend's gone you hear! Now get out of my inn, I've had enough of your kind here." He gave a cock of his head at the strong-arm, signaling him to get rid of Jared. The strong arm was big and burly, as every other man of his occupation was. He placed a heavy hand on Jared's shoulder and attempted to push him out of the way like a child.

Jared's fingers instinctively darted to the strings of his mandolin, where he played a series of chords. A loud vacuuming sound came after as the air around the strong-arm condensed into an icy body-cast. At the sight the innkeeper dropped the glass he was still wiping, and all the other patrons of the inn had fled through the windows or the back door since Jared still stood at the entrance. The innkeeper tried to make a run for it with the others but Jared caught him by the back of his collar and with extreme discomfort was pulled over the counter and slammed into the floor. This left the innkeeper dazed for a second until Jared's boot fell heavily on his temple.

"You crazy bastard!" shouted the innkeeper as he flailed his arms and legs around in desperation. Jared slammed the butt of his mandolin at the base of the innkeeper's back, consequently behaving him.

"Where did he go?" asked Jared driving his mandolin down even harder.

"I don't know!" shouted the innkeeper repeatedly as he cringed under Jared's foot and mandolin. "He left not long after you did, didn't say a word! I swear!" At this, Jared let the innkeeper go, who immediately ran out of his own establishment as fast as his feet could take him.

Jared stepped out of the inn; the street was empty and the rain still pouring. Jared closed his eyes and listened to the sound of each individual raindrop falling unto a surface. This formed a picture in his head as clear as anything his eyes could give. It had been raining sometime now, everybody was indoors; those whom had just ran away from the Winning Horse excluded, but he knew where they were headed. He listened again searching amid all other sounds for something that would lead to Saga. Suddenly there it was, the dirt road had turned into mud now and he could here someone in light boots walking through the mud but under a shade, untouched by the rain. It was feint- a skin's width away from being out of earshot but still possible to follow.

Shaga had left not long after Jared did; he headed out of the pitiful district of the Pronteran slums and towards the main road. With an unfortunate strike of luck it began to rain, no doubt that all the acolytes would be running to the nearest shelter from the rain, leaving no one to warp him. Shaga rolled his eyes and had a mind to go back to the winning horse, though one look at the road of mud quickly changed his mind. He saw a merchant's tent shop that had obviously been abandoned a long time ago at the side of the road. Deciding that it was better than nothing he entered and decided to wait out the rain.

The rain had gone on for some time now and again the prospect of going back to the winning horse hovered around Shaga's head. Then, again one look at the road, which now resembled a roiling brown ocean, changed his mind. Nothing happened until a sound of someone splashing through the mud was heard. Shaga pulled back the tattered piece of cloth to see who it was that was coming his way.

There was a man running through the rain for dear life. The mud had splattered all over the front of his cloths and face, but that fact didn't seem to have any particular importance to him. Shaga took a good look at the man's face as he passed by. At first Shaga couldn't recognize him with all the mud caked on his face, he speculated for a moment then suddenly realized who it was-the innkeeper.

Just as Shaga recognized the innkeeper, a note rung in the rain-muddled air and a shockwave of sound blew apart the old merchant tent sending him flying with it. In mid-air Shaga pulled out his katars and he landed on the ground with his arms crossed over his chest, in the assassin fighting stance. Shaga looked at his attacker then smiled underneath his mask upon seeing Jared.

"Why doesn't this surprise me very much?" called Shaga. Jared didn't reply he just stared at the assassin through his hair that was matted on his forehead by the rain. "I was right in saying that that girl had you dancing with her?" mocked Shaga with a chuckle.

There was murder in Jared's eyes at the assassin's reproach. He strummed his mandolin sending a shockwave of sound, the assassin's way. Shaga somersaulted in the air and easily evaded the musical strike. There was no time wasted, Jared sent strike after strike, unceasing in his shockwaves of sound. Shaga evaded each until one managed to gash him on the shoulder. Upon landing from the last somersault Shaga rushed towards Jared in a blaze of deadly steel blades. Both of them were locked in a battle where Shaga struck with katar or leg at every opening he could get, and Jared trying to block all vital areas of his body but in the process leaving him with numerous slashes on his arm's legs and face.

Shaga then pulled out a red gemstone from his person and muttered an incantation under his breath. The gemstone glowed faintly as Shaga attempted to lunge it into Jared chest. Jared managed to evade the attack to his chest but the gemstone was driven into his arm instead. When the attack was administered Shaga jumped back a good distance before calling to Jared.

"Unfortunately that venom splasher will not be fatal when embedded in your arm, but you won't be able to use that mandolin of yours anymore will you?" at this he gave another chuckle and proceeded to watch Jared.

The gemstone was heating and pulsating in his arm, driven through one of his wounds. How the assassins managed to manipulate objects into even the smallest cuts was beyond Jared, though now was not the time to try and uncover the secrets of the assassin's guild. Shaga had stopped chuckling and was now in a fit of uproarious laughter. Jared moved his fingers towards the strings of his mandolin and not paying heed to the searing pain he strummed a series of chords again. Shaga was caught off guard as a shockwave of sound the size of a wall collided head on with him. The impact of the blow cracked a couple of his ribs and he fell to the floor like a sack of rocks instead of the grace and finesse befit of an assassin. Not mere seconds from his fall another shockwave hit him this time stronger than the last one. That was followed by three more, if those had been even more powerful Shaga could no longer tell the difference.

Jared fell to the ground from the pain of creating such powerful shockwaves with his damaged arm. The gemstone was now pulsating so violently Jared felt it might rip right through his arm. He limped towards the battered body of the assassin. Shaga was lying on the ground, nothing moving except for the very feint rise and fall of his chest. Blood trickled from his mouth, no doubt from him bleeding internally, the force Jared put into those shockwaves could have been compared to having golems thrown at you at high speed.

Surprisingly, Shaga managed to talk "Too, late Jared, Lord Irutalde is already going to attack your precious dancer's guild tonight. He told me to tell you it was at the end of the month so that you would be killed in the process," Shaga began to laugh uncontrollably again despite the blood erupting from his mouth as he did.

Jared got Shaga into a headlock, making sure the position of the gemstone was at the assassin's throat. Jared's shout of agony echoed in the rain as the venom splasher finally exploded.


	14. Part 14

Part 14 

The rain had finally died down an hour or so after sunset, the point being that Persha couldn't see the rainbow in the already indigo sky. Instead, she stared at the stars that were beginning to dot the empty canvas of the night sky with silvery light. As she did, she fingered the petals of the rose Jared had given her. It had remained fresh and bloomed, staying true to its claim of being witherless. She recalled the events of the night when Jared had found her, and finished his song-her song. The night when both of them had finally said how much they love each other, it brought a smile to her face.

Jared had disappeared, without warning for most of the day. He hadn't mentioned anything to the gate guards and Sonon was apprehensive when she asked him if he knew where Jared was. Unfortunately nobody knew, so she waited in the veranda facing the gate, waiting for Jared to return. She began to hum Jared's song for her; it soothed her and made her feel that he was beside her.

A cold wind swept past then suddenly someone pulled her from behind and placed a hand over her mouth. She was about to fight back when she realized that it was Jared. He looked down at her with eyes that were filled with such sadness that she felt that she might cry as well. Jared gently let his hand fall from over her mouth unto her cheek.

"Jared," Persha began softly "what's wrong, please tell me," She felt for his other hand but was surprised to find that from the elbow down it was missing, only wrapped in cloth ripped from his cape, with the blood already seeping through. Persha couldn't hold back her tears at the sight of this, she cried on Jared's shoulder, unable to find any words to say.

Jared stroked her hair reassuringly, but Persha felt a difference in the manner he did it, a sadness of sorts, as if he was saying goodbye or forgive me. She held unto him tighter and didn't want to let go, for fear of loosing him.

"Persha, do you love me?" asked Jared, the sadness even more apparent in his voice.

"Of course Jared, if I never knew you I would have no inkling of how precious life could be," replied Persha.

At this point Jared drew back leaving Persha with her arms extended towards him. He turned away from her and she brought her hands back towards her. She knew something was wrong, but she couldn't figure out what. If only Jared would tell her.

Tears were streaming down Jared's face when he turned to face her again. "If you never knew me? What if you didn't know me Persha? Will you still love me?"

"Jared, I will always love you. Nothing can make me stop loving you." Persha stepped forward and kissed Jared, at first he didn't return the kiss and seemed to be trying to draw away again but then he finally returned it, and with more passion than he had ever kissed her before. After some time he finally drew back and he reached for her hand and held it firmly in his.

"Persha, we have to go. We have to leave the guild house tonight," said Jared, before he made for the entrance of the castle from the veranda.

Persha planted her feet on the ground and pulled Jared back towards her, they met eye to eye and once again Persha could feel the sadness Jared's shown. "Please tell me what's wrong Jared," she begged softly. Jared bent down and kissed her again. "Trust me Persha, you have to trust me, please" Persha nodded then reluctantly followed him.

Jared had brought Persha out of the guild house bypassing all the places where any other person could be found. They had made it out without encountering anybody at all. It amazed Persha that Jared was able to pull of something like that, she had spent a much longer time in the guild house than he did; yet he managed to find deserted corridors that even she didn't know about. They were now outside the guild house walls and in the forest. Persha headed northwards but Jared pulled her back with a sharp "No,"

"The northern gates are the nearest," said Persha assuming they were going to Prontera.

"Forces from Al deBaran will come from the north we have to go south, we're going to the park," replied Jared. Persha didn't understand the significance of forces from Al deBaran but she promised that she would trust Jared so she followed him southwards towards the park.

The forest was quiet aside from the occasional hoot from an owl or chirp from a cricket. Jared led them just as quietly towards Persha's park. Jared had still said nothing about what was happening and Persha didn't try to dig it out of him at the moment, but she planned to. They finally arrived at the forest clearing where the park stood at the other end. Persha had never seen her park at night before, it was beautiful, the moonlight shown down and the waters from the fountain reflected it bathing the whole park with the silver light.

Both of them sat down on a bench where Jared buried his face in his remaining hand. He began to cry again, Persha placed her hand on his lap then rested her head on his shoulder.

"Jared, please talk to me. Let me share your burden." Tears began to trickle from her eyes at this point. "I can't stand seeing you like this Jared,"

"Persha, I have to tell you something, but I can't" He looked at her and this time the sadness in his eyes were joined by desperation "I know I have to, I really want to. But I can't make myself tell you. Persha I never meant to hurt you like this. I never meant to fall in love with you and hurt you like this."

"Jared, you never hurt me." Began Persha "I would have been lost and dead without you,"

"Don't say that Persha, I don't deserve you. I'm an evil person who hurts good people; I'll never deserve you. But I'll always love you."

Jared bent to kiss Persha and Persha did the same, just when their lips were about to touch the sound of someone's hands clapping interrupted the silence of the park.

Lord Irutalde then stepped out from the clearing with a company of a female wizard with extremely straight jet-black hair, a male alchemist who's entire face was covered by a leather mask of a young man screaming in anger, and finally a couple or so of knights behind them. It was Lord Reginald Irutalde who had been clapping and his face was an expression of pure jesting at Jared and Persha.

"Oh my, what a coincidence. My master saboteur and his wench." Said Lord Irutalde as his clapping stopped. Jared stared at him with the utmost hate and rage. Lord Irutalde was taken aback for a moment at Jared's expression he would have unsheathed his sword and cut Jared down right then and there if he didn't regain his control in time. He noticed Jared's arm, or lack thereof then smiled.

"I see Shaga had managed to take your arm to the grave with him," said Irutalde, "And it seems he has told you that we are already here. I knew he couldn't resist spiting you with his last breath. A pity, I couldn't have killed him for such idiocy."

"You would kill your own men for pleasure!" shouted Jared "And you have the audacity to call yourself a guild master. What master are you?"

At his remark Jared received a full-armed slap from Irutalde's gauntleted hand. The sheer strength of the knight made Jared fall. Irutalde pulled out his sword and was about to bring it down on Jared but Persha's rapture rose entwined around his wrist and his sword came down on the ground instead, mere inches from Jared's head.

Blood seeped out from where the thorns of the rapture rose had dug into the flesh of the knight. "Few people have made me bleed in my life girl, and fewer of them still were left alive," said Irutalde. With the rapture rose still entwined around his wrist he pulled Persha towards himself and caught her by the throat. "Why do you protect him so? Do you love him?" asked Irutalde with a sneer.

Persha met the knight's stare head-on and replied; "You'll never know what it means to love or be loved, who'll lay down their life for you, Your men? They follow you out of fear not loyalty. Take my word for it, first sign of weakness in your part and they'll all try to usurp you."

"Insolent wench! You think you're loved?" shouted Irutalde "I will show you something that will break your little heart into a thousand pieces." He motioned at Jared with his head and two brawny knights from the flanks stepped forward and picked Jared up. The alchemist joined them and pulled out a vial of red liquid from his coat.

"Open up," the alchemist said hissingly to Jared, who refused to open his mouth. The alchemist then pinched his nose until he opened his mouth involuntarily, where the alchemist poured down the contents of the vial unceremoniously.

Persha who was struggling to get free from Irutalde's grasp had stopped with the sensation that was coming from Jared in the telepathic guild link. Jared's link was fading in then out suddenly a link for a different guild spilled into the Malacca network. It didn't last for long but long enough for Persha to identify Irutalde's mind among those. When the other guild that had spilled in finally disappeared Jared's link was gone with them. Persha couldn't believe what was happening, Jared was really a saboteur from Suldam, all this was true, and everything that they had done wasn't real. He toyed with her emotions.

Irutalde began to chuckle at Persha's expression of surprise and extreme depression "What can you say about love now girl?" he mocked "You're lover was actually my wolf in sheep's clothing, sent among the flock of Malacca."

"I'm sorry Persha," said Jared tears streaming down his face "I have no excuse. But know that I truly love you. I didn't lie about that. Everything in my song was true, I promise."

"Silence hode!" shouted Irutalde as he kicked the stub of Jared's arm. Jared cringed from the pain and gritted his teeth trying to stifle the urge to wail. Irutalde starred at down at him "You have the same fire in you as your master did? He too didn't want to accept the pain." Irutalde began kicking Jared's arm repeatedly until an agonized moan escaped from Jared's mouth. " By the way, did you ever wonder why you so willingly accepted my demand for you to sabotage your master? I had made Sikhak place one of the many potions I use in my arsenal in his knife. That little prick in your neck was enough to cloud your mind and not disobey me. I made you betray your master!"

Jared's rage was fueled by the words. He forgot all about the pain in his arm and sweep-kicked one of the knights holding him causing that knight to fall unto the other one. He then lunged at Irutalde making both of them fall to the ground and setting Persha free.

"Run Persha!" shouted Jared, while he still had Irutalde pinned on the ground. Persha didn't have time to think she just ran with her tears streaming behind her.

The jet black-haired wizard snapped her fingers and a wall of fire erupted around the park but it was a second to late from preventing Persha from escaping.

The two knights recovered from their fall and lifted Jared off Lord Irutalde. Out of rage Irutalde grabbed the wizard by the hair. "What use do I have of casters that take an eternity with their spells!" he bellowed at the wizard who at this point began to weep. He threw her down to the ground then pulled out a stiletto and drove the whole length of the blade up the stub of Jared's arm. This time Jared couldn't contain his shout of pain.

"Find the dancer, we can't let her get within range of the telepathic link to warn her guild!" ordered Irutalde "Bring her back dead or alive, preferably dead." The alchemist and the wizard bowed before they entered the forest after Persha.

Persha was running through the forest, her vision almost completely obscured by her tears. Jared couldn't have done such a thing, he couldn't have. She felt his love for her…or did she? She continued running leaving only her footsteps and her tears on the forest floor behind her.


	15. Part 15

_Author's note: If you could take a quick peek at chapter nine with Jared's song for Persha, I kind of changed it I'm sorry._ Part 15 

The sweat fell from the tip of Jared's nose joining the puddle of dark crimson blood forming around his boots. He had his teeth clenched so tightly that his jaw ached like fire at the least, but nothing compared to the colossal agony he was experiencing in his arm. The full length of the stiletto's blade had disappeared into the flesh, leaving only the hilt protruding from the stub of his arm. Fatigue slowly crept into Jared's mind as the lesion bled profusely. Jared already admitted to himself that he was going to die tonight, at least he had allowed Persha to escape, a small way to try and atone for all his sins towards her, but his life wasn't worth enough-nowhere near enough

The moon had hidden behind the clouds now, and the fountain water had no light to reflect around the park leaving it shrouded in a depressing shadow. Jared tested the grip of the knights holding him by fidgeting his wrists around as much as his weakened state would allow him, but it only resulted with them tightening their grasps around him, making it even more uncomfortable. Jared sighed; this was a time he wished it were possible for you to take your own life by holding your breath. Persha had escaped already, and he had enough faith in her to know that the only person from the Suldam party who posed a threat was Irutalde. By now, Jared couldn't stand properly anymore, his knees were shaking and it took all his strength and concentration to keep from feinting. Though, what was the point? He asked himself; it wasn't like there was anything else left to live for anymore. Jared smirked and decided to stop fighting death.

Irutalde cupped Jared's head in his gauntleted hand. Jared's vision was blurred and his hearing muffled by the blood pounding in his ears but he could recognize Irutalde's malign presence as a second nature. "No, Jared. Not just yet. You'll die after you've seen your dancer girl die." Jared was physically too weak to react, but his anger raged inside overpowering everything, even the pain. It was someone else's pain; it meant nothing to Jared. How he wished to kill Irutalde, how he yearned to make him pay for everything that was done to him. Irutalde released Jared's face. Jared could only make out the blurry image of Irutalde smiling before one of the knights restraining him struck him behind the head with a sword pommel and immediately rendered him unconscious.

Persha's tears welled up in her eyes as she ran through the forest. Her chest felt as heavy as iron; from all the pain that it carried and her thoughts confused her to the point she didn't know what to think of anymore. How could Jared hurt her like that? She knew him; she saw in his eyes the love he had for her and the sadness he felt whenever they got close to each other. It was a sadness that seemed to foreshadow something; it seemed to foreshadow this. Persha pushed the thought aside with a great deal of difficulty for fear of it causing her to stumble and just cry to herself on the forest floor.

As Persha ran she felt a strange tremor traveling below her-underground. She couldn't tell what it was. The tremors began to grow in intensity, as if whatever was moving beneath her was heading for the surface. Suddenly a Flora burst through solid ground like the hard soil was nothing more than parchment paper. Persha skidded to a halt while simultaeneously pulling out her Damascus. The Flora was a hideous creature, shaped like a flowering plant but possessing multiple rows of human-like teeth in the center of its corolla of petals. It snapped viciously at Persha's arm but she managed to dodge it easily and bring her blade down on its stem. The Flora's head fell to the ground with a sickening splat, where it immediatley began to shrivel up.

Tremors erupted from the ground again and almost knocked Persha down if she hadn't caught her balance in time. Half a dozen Floras erupted from the ground in the same manner as the first one did and at the same time a ball of fire shot from behind her. All the Floras tried to strike at her simultaneously and Persha only had a split second to react. She jumped into the air as the fireball that was aimed at her passed below and incinerated all the Floras. She landed on the ash covered ground and turned back to see her assailants.

The black haired wizard still had her hand outstretched from launching the fireball and the alchemist in the scream mask was throwing more plant bottles into the ground. As each bottle shattered, the alchemically enhanced seeds inside immediately began sprouting vines and roots that tunneled into the ground heading for Persha. The Floras erupted from the ground once again, attacking Persha without delay. Reflexively, Persha dodged the plant-like monsters' teeth and hacked-off every stalk she could reach. She fell flat on the ground as another fireball discharged toward her direction, and incinerated the Floras once again.

At this point, her assailants began heatedly arguing with each other. The alchemist was agitatedly waving his hands over his head while raving about his plant bottles not being free. The wizard on the other hand was shouting at the top of her lungs about not being able to maneuver her fireball around the all of the alchemist's summons. Persha saw this as her chance; she hurled her Damascus with deadly accuracy at the alchemist's head. The alchemist only had a second to look towards Persha's direction before the dagger penetrated him through the left eyehole of his scream mask. He collapsed on the ground like a sack of rocks while his blood began trickling from behind the mask with the screaming expression.

The wizard had let out a high-pitched scream when the Damascus impaled the alchemist through the eye. She was petrified for a second at the sight of her fallen comrade. When she regained herself, she faced Persha; Fire began collecting on her palms. She raised her hands over her head, prepared to throw the orbs of fire but Persha's heel slammed between her eyes and knocked her out immediately.

Persha vulgarly pulled the knife out of the alchemist's eye and grasped it in her hand so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She stared at the unconscious form of the wizard lying on the ground and raised the Damascus over her head. This woman was part of Suldam, the guild that had sent Jared to sabotage Malacca, to break her heart. Tears began streaming down Persha's cheeks as she stayed the blade in her hand; she was in so much pain inside that she couldn't bear it anymore. She thought that she had finally found someone who loved her and she could love back. She thought she and Jared had found each other; she heard his song, felt the truth in his words. She was angry with Suldam for doing this to her, angry with Jared, angry with herself for, even after knowing the truth, being unable to stop loving Jared.

She forced herself to forget him right there, but she couldn't. Everytime she would push the image of his face away from his mind, it would seep back in. She prayed that she would stop loving him, but nothing could make her. Her mind was a torrent of emotions that left her crying with her teeth clenched from a dangerous mix of anger and the deepest of sorrows. The pain was so great that Persha was on the brink of loosing the will to live, if she wasn't already.

Persha let out a sob through her clenched teeth and threw the dagger down. It landed close to but not touching the unconscious wizard's shoulder. Persha burried her face into her hands and cried. She wanted to stand up and run to the guild house but her body wouldn't let her. She continued crying into her hands seemingly oblivious to the world around her because of her sadness.

The female wizard began to slowly open her eyes, her ears were still ringing and she was still dizzy. She noticed that a woman was crying and concluded that it was the dancer girl. She closed her eyes again hoping that the dancer girl didn't notice her. How could she? She was to busy bawling like a witless child to notice anybody around her. If she –Milothippe- were to kill off the dancer now, she would be acclaimed in Suldam, Adelbrand was already dead, with a knife lodged in his eye, that fool; all the glory would go to her. She jumped to her feat and prepared to launch another fireball straight at Persha's face.

Her estimation at Persha's reflex speed was highly misjudged; at the first sign of her standing up Persha had grabbed the dagger and slashed at the female wizard. Persha aimed true at Milothippe's wrist, with a flick of Persha's wrist she made another cut at the armpit then another at the neck. Milothippe stepped back a few steps clutching at her wounds, she slumped on the ground as if her bones had melted. The three cuts at the three vital points killed her in seconds.

Persha stood up and wiped the tears from her cheeks. She turned around and continued running towards the Malacca guild house, refusing to look at the two bodies dead in the forest.

Jared wearily opened his eyes and noticed that he being dragged by the two knights. He noticed that they were still in the forest since bars of silver moonlight escaped between the gaps in the tree leaves. Suddenly orange torch light came into view, they were entering a camp. All around Jared recognized familiar faces from Suldam and they him. Some had bewildred expressions some had pity, still there were others who had smug grins showing that they were happy that one of their competitions for power was being disposed of. This was it, Jared thought to himself- the beginning of the guildwars.


	16. Part 16

**Part 16**

Abenander sat on the wooden high-backed chair in his study. He fidgeted around in his position and the thought of getting a cushion surfaced in his mind for about the thousandth time since he acquired the title of guildmaster and with it this study and chair; he pushed it away for the same thousandth time. The uncomfortability of the chair was a reminder to Abenander of the past Malaccan guildmasters that both lost and regained their castle. Now, the burden was laid upon his shoulders and if he couldn't stand such a trivial thing as a sore bottom, what more could he do for his guild? His train of thought was disrupted by someone rapping on the door raucously. Before Abenander could say a word to permit admission, Paris burst through the door wearing a very harassed expression on his face.

"Abenander!" began the hunter, rather out of breath "The scouts and I found a group of strangers in the forest, within our boundaries. We were about to ask them to leave our territory, when I recognized one of them as a Suldam so we followed them. They brought us to their base." Paris paused for a moment to catch his breath before he continued in a lower tone as if he was telling a very dark secret. "The entire Suldam force is camped in the clearing just outside our forest. A force five times the size of our guild population, all their allies are with them. They'll be at our gates by morning."

The sudden news caught Abenander by surprise, he rose from his chair so suddenly that it toppled back behind him. He was about to designate orders to defend the castle and contact the allied guilds when a surge of foreign frequency flooded through the guild link. For a few seconds a thousand new presences entered the link, as if an entirely different guild was melded with theirs. When the strange occurrence finally stopped, commotion erupted through the entire guildhouse. All the guildmembers who were connected to the link and went through the incident began asking for explainations, the servants began backing into the walls unaware of what was happening to everybody, Abenander and Paris were left staring at each other blankly. Abenander let out a deep breath that he hadn't noticed he had been holding and his palm fell on top of his desk, there was one presence that disappeared from the link together with the thousand others that invaded- Jared's

When Abenander and Paris exited the study, sure enough a whole mass of guildmembers were already waiting outside the door, asking for explainations regarding what had happened. Abenander didn't speak but continued on his way towards the guildhall, he sent messages to the other senior members to meet him there. Paris told everybody that they knew nothing more than everybody else for the moment and that everybody was to wait in the guildhall while the senior members were to confer with each other. This seemed to satisfy everybody for the moment and they followed Abenander and Paris towards the guildhall.

Rhozen and Corvus met them in the corridor as they made their way down. The knight and the wizard merged together with Paris and Abenander at the front of the procession of guildmates.

"What was that thing that just happened, Abenander?" asked Corvus, "I felt as if we were joined together with another guild for a time there. Was it your doing Abenander?"

Abenander shook his head, "I have no idea Corvus, my mind's as blank as yours." He turned to Rhozen and raised his eyebrows, "Well, what does the renowned teacher at the academy of magic think?"

Rhozen didn't reply at first, he just continued staring stoically ahead of the corridor. "I don't know either," he began "but I think we all know whose presence it was that disappeared from the link after the incident." No one replied after and everything remained silent until they reached the doors of the guild hall.

Servants opened the door for the new arrivals. Majority of the guild had already arrived. No one dared to ask any questions while Rhozen's "no nonsense" expression was in place. Abenander, Paris, Corvus, and Rhozen entered the conference room at the far end of the hall beside the dais. Paris told everybody to please wait a while before he closed the door behind him and took his seat.

Adella, Maharet, Victor, Sonon and Lucia were already seated when Abenander arrived, but one seat was empty. Abenander looked around for Persha but didn't find her in the room. He used the guild link to sense her location and found her heading towards the guild house. She was much too far to contact with the link, without any help from any significantly powerfull telepaths. Rhozen and Maharet were in the room but Persha was heading towards the guildhouse so abenander let it be.

Lucia lit a cigarette and blew out a couple of smoke rings before she spoke "I don't think we still need to ask right?" she said sarcastically

Adella slammed her fist on the table "What in God's name happened? Who were those other presences in the link?" she shouted vociferously.

"It's obvious isn't it?" remarked Victor "That bastard Jared was a spy and betrayed us! We should have known, he played us for fools."

Paris spoke up "We found the entire Suldam guild camped in the borders of Prontera and Aldbaran. One of the invading presences that I sensed was my old archery rival, from what I know he's now a member of Suldam."

Abenander made a pyramid with his fingers and rested his chin over them. "I can't say that Suldam choosing to resort to such measures wasn't expected. We have to prepare for war by morning. Rhozen, I want you and the other telepaths with enough strength to contact all guildmembers who are away from the castle, we need all the help we can get. Our allies have been falling one by one." Rhozen nodded and stood up from his chair before departing the room, Maharet went with him, because she was one of the guild's most powerfull telepaths.

Abenander faced the remaining people in the room. He nodded to them and they back to him. They exited the conference room and stepped up to the dais. The whole guild remained quiet, Abenander was wondering how come they didn't break down the door to the conference room when they saw Rhozen leave. Abenander spoke to the crowd. "Red Stallions, our scouts have spotted the Suldam guild camped in the borders of Prontera and Alde baran. Their force is five times the size of ours and will be on us by morning. Whoever remains stead fast and will not run live true to your name. Who will join us in battle?" A roar erupted from the crowd and people began unsheathing their weapons. People began chanting the guild pledge.

_Forth into war, the cavalry charges_

_Every weapon I wield is for the honor of the guild_

_Every weapon I sheathe is for the honor of the guild_

_If my ally should die I shall take up his sword and fight with his honor_

_If I should die I trust my ally to take up my sword and fight with my honor_

_Red Stallions by brand, Red Stallions by heart_

_Forth into war, the cavalry charges_

Abenander called to the crowd "Red Stallion are going to war!" The guild echoed back their cry of approval.


	17. Part 17

**Part 17**

Persha arrived at the gates of the castle, which had already been withdrawn and barred for the battle; the gateman had to let Persha in through a secret entrance hidden in the support columns of the gate. Everyone inside was preparing for war already, the clang of smith's hammers on steel and anvil hung around the courtyard, the blades of the fletchers slid back on forth the shafts of arrows smoothing them out so that they would fly straight, accurate and deadly. Everybody was much too preoccupied with their task to notice Persha, except for Adella.

The Priestess saw Persha, her hands and face caked with dry blood, escorted into the castle by the gateman. She immediately ran-up and hugged the dancer tightly in her arms. Persha could do nothing but break out in tears on Adella's shoulders. Adella didn't speak, but stroked the younger woman's hair and cooed soothingly like a mother to her child. After a while, Persha managed to compel herself into speaking. "Adella, Jared, he's not…" Adella hugged her more tightly and protectively.

"Don't speak of him now," said the priestess "He fooled us all, not only you."

Persha looked into Adella's eyes feeling so helpless and confused "No Adella, Jared saved my life." Adella was fearfull for Persha, had Jared done so much to her that she would fall into delusions rather than accept the truth? Adella felt she had to bring Persha back to her senses, before all of this had happened. "Persha, cannot you see what is right in front of your face? That man used you to get to the guild; and he succeeded!"

"But he saved my life! He's not what he seems to be!" replied Persha tears welling up in her eyes.

"Then who is he truly? Do you know? Do you think the Jared that you had been with these past few months is what he actually is? The full force of Suldam will be on us by sunrise, Persha. That is no act of love!"

"But Adella I know…" Adella raised a hand and stopped her before she could finish. No more Persha," her voice was stern and expression resolute despite tears welling up in her own eyes. "I will ask Abenander not to permit you to fight during the war" The priestess's hand lowered and her tone softened "You are emotionally vulnerable now; I can't let that endanger the guild and yourself. I'm sorry Persha I have made my decision."

Persha stepped back from Adella, her tears now running down her cheeks. Adella tried to wipe them away but Persha stepped back again, avoiding the priestess's hand, her eyes, although behind tears, showed such sadness and pain. She broke into a run heading inside the castle.

Adella watched Persha go; she couldn't stop herself from crying as well, she closed her eyes and prayed that she had made the right choice.

Abenander starred at his sister and was met back with an iron clad stare of her own. "Are you sure Adella?" he asked "We will loose a large advantage if Pesha will not fight."

"Abenander," Adella began "If Jared were to fight in the war and face Persha do you think she will be able to lift a finger against him? We know that he will have no hesitation to strike her down where she stands. I believe this is safer for Persha and all of us."

Adella felt really strong about this, she also felt very guilt. She had been the one constantly pushing Jared and Persha together. She just didn't want to see Persha lonely anymore, and that desire to make Persha happy blinded her. The Guildwars had unexpectedly come and at an ill-fated time, she feared for the sake of the guild and for their lives.

The sun was yellowing the horizon Abenander stood at the highest veranda of the castle, overlooking the edge of the forest where at any time the forces of Suldam would begin pouring out into their territory like ink poured into water. Adella and Lucia stood on either side of him; his sister held a rosary in her hands and was silently praying while Lucia had another cigarette in her mouth. Rhozen and the other powerfull telepaths had finished contacting the guild members who were away and the remaining allies of Malacca. They were told to collect themselves at the guild castle of Malacca's ally Drow, then if enough strength had been gathered they would attack Suldam from the rear. The castle only had to be protected till they arrived.

The standard of Malacca was waving in the wind so furiously, the red stallion seemed to be rearing wildly, restless to charge into battle; the entire guild felt the same. Victor and Corvus were already mounted on their Pecopecos ready to lead the cavalry, most of the hunters and magic users were stationed at the walls. Everything was desperately quiet, like the sea before a storm. A storm was what they were rushing into, thought Abenander, a storm of blood and steal and he wasn't sure if they were coming out alive but he remained steadfast and strong for his guild, he had to; it was his duty.

A sound pierced the deafening silence- a battle horn, Alde Barranian by the low languid sound it gave off. A flock of ravens flew away from the trees as the horn sounded. Within seconds the first standard bearer rode out. He carried a flag with silver leash and collar of Suldam on a field of black. Lord Reginald Irutalde followed, riding on the largest Peopeco Abenander had ever seen. As he rode forward the roar of the Suldam guildsmen accompanied him before they themselves tailed their guildmaster. It was a force of millions; they shook the ground as they marched towards the castle.

The Malaccan sages had erected land protectors on the battle field during the night, so all the spell casters were rendered useless at this point of the battle. The first Arrows fired from the castle walls of Malacca and the army of Suldam. There was a moment of pitch darkness as all the arrows blotted out the sun. The arrows fell and the first wails of deaths were heard. Arrows began to volley back and forth from both guilds. Corvus and Victor trusted in the capability of their hunters not to hit their own so they lead the cavalry to charge into the fore of battle. Victor hurled his shield and immediately took out the banner man, it spun back to him and he caught it effortlessly. With the banner man gone both of them directly came to swords with Irutalde. The knight guildmaster countered Corvus and Victor's attacks with ease while his large Peopeco snapped at them with its razor sharp beak and; a well trained war-Pecopeco was just as deadly as any sword.

Paris was one of the few hunters who joined with the frontliners. Every Suldam guildsman that caught his eye fell down with an arrow to the heel, personal trademark shot. He saw Victor and Corvus fighting with Irutalde and having trouble getting any attack in. He quickly pivoted his foot and aimed at the Knight's heel. The twang of the bowstring pulsated as the arrow left Paris's fingers. The arrow was about to hit but Irutalde reared his Pecopeco to turn and caught the arrow in the air with a slash, shattering it to pieces. Victor saw an opening and attempted to thrust his sword at Irutalde but two arrows fired out of nowhere and hit him at his side. He fell from his Pecopeco dropping his weapons during the fall. Irutalde used the momentum from the spin to add power to his slash, and almost decapitated Victor if Corvus had not managed to pick up the Crusader's shield and black the attack in time.

Victor pulled out the arrows from his side then placed his hands over the wound. White light emanated from his palm and the cuts disappeared. "Can you still fight?" asked Corvus through the link as he still used Victor's shield to desperately block all of Irutalde's attacks. "I did the best I could," said Victor weakly "But only Adella and Abenander can heal the internal damage. I think we have to retreat."

When Paris saw Victor go down he followed the direction of the arrows and immediately found the one who had fired the double strafe, it was his rival Menelaus, the one he saw in the forest. Paris nocked an arrow into his bow and Menelaus did the same, they had always been so evenly matched even during their archer days. They moved without any second's difference. They lifted their bows and fired charge arrows in perfectly unrehearsed unison. The arrows left their bows at such high speed that it left a trail of smoke where it had burned the air. Both arrows collided point to point and at such high force that the resulting shockwave threw everybody within ten meters of the collision twice that distance.

Paris was quick to act and tapped into the guild link. He contacted everybody in the battle field. "Quick everybody retreat!" he ordered "Hunters! Activate all your flash traps!" The hunters did as they were told and threw all their flash traps into the air, their falcons instinctively flew to the traps and slashed at them with their talons. The flash traps imploded into themselves and released a blinding white light. Paris tweaked the link a bit so that the Malaccan guildsmen could be led by the bards using their echolocation through the light. The plan worked perfectly and everybody managed to successfully retreat into the guild castle. Paris was the last one to enter the castle and was surprised when sounds of explosions suddenly emanated from behind him. He turned around to see a bombardment of magic raining down on the Suldam force, the earth beneath their feet erupted in spikes that constantly shifted back and forth from liquid to solid, pillars of fire ignited over people completely incinerating whoever it touched, blizzards began forming everywhere and the people caught in them were frozen to their core only to be shattered into a million pieces by lightning and heated air that crashed down over them afterwards. Clearly the Malaccan sages had negated their land protectors to allow the wizards to attack. Most of the destruction was aimed around Suldam's spell caster division so it was a while before Suldam's sages could erect their own land protectors. The torrent of elemental attacks ceased once the land protectors were initiated but no time was wasted before arrows followed from the walls of Malacca. Suldam retaliated in seconds and the volley of arrows from both guilds began again.

Abenander watched the battle, with Paris's quick thinking in the field of battle, they managed to retreat safely and with Rhozen's tactical action, but much to risky for Abenander's taste, with the spell casters they managed to reduce Suldam's numbers greatly but they were still far outnumbered without the reinforcements. Showers of arrows were heading for the veranda. Abenander raised his palm then shouted "Pneuma!" A bar of green mist fired at the arrow and caused them to stop in mid-air before dropping to the ground like sacks of stones. They were contacted by Corvus through the guild link, calling either Adella or Abenander down to attend to Victor. Abenander turned to leave but Adella caught his arm. "I'll do it Abenander, you have to stay here." Abenander paused for a moment before he nodded and resumed his position on the veranda while Adella made her way inside. Lucia swung her two handed axe over her shoulder, everytime she inhaled her cigarette lessened a centimeter or so and everytime she exhaled smoke spilled from her mouth. "You think we can survive this Abenander? Who knows what Jared managed to reveal to them. What weaknesses we have that they can exploit?' Abenander didn't answer, he was afraid of the same thing. He ordered all entrances and exits to be sealed, locking them in as much as they kept Suldam out. If Jared had managed to learn weaknesses in the walls or if he had found entrances that even he didn't know off all would be lost and Malacca would be driven into the ground. The silver leashe and collar would close around the neck of the red stallion and never be opened.


	18. Part 18

**Part 18**

The battle had persisted till the afternoon; the sun was red like the blood-stained ground as it began to descend behind the horizon. Persha watched everything from the window of her room. It was utter chaos outside and from what she saw; Malacca was in a dangerous position. The force of Suldam was significantly lessened by the earlier actions of Paris and Rhozen but still they were vastly outnumbered. A number of Malacca's allies had fallen even before the wars had started, Persha speculated that it was Suldam's doing as well, and the few who had not were only contacted the day before and would take time before they could arrive. Suldam on the other hand had all their allies with them, though no other standard aside from the silver leash and collar was shown, the number of men they had outside was much too large for any one guild to occupy.

Persha ached to fight and help turn the tide for Malacca but she wasn't permitted to leave her room. Adella had stationed a knight and a wizard, both female, outside her door to guard her. She made it a point that they were female saying that if men were left to guard her, their egos would get in the way and they would sheep-headedly try to apprehend her themselves, get knocked out in the process, and they would never know that she had escaped until it was too late. Persha felt like a common criminal locked up in a dungeon for crimes she did not commit.

There was a knock on the door and Maharet came in "Are you okay Persha?" she asked tilting her head to the side like she always did when she asked questions. Persha nodded apprehensively before she spoke "I thought you were trying to telepathically break into Suldam's guild link?" she asked

"I was, but their own telepaths can match our every move, some of our own have begun have had nose bleeds or fainted from the strain of it all." She brushed her green hair away from her face and Persha noticed that Maharet didn't wear her engagement ring. "You can wear your ring Maharet, you don't have to take it off for me." She told the sage

Maharet's eyes lowered and she fingered her pocket, no doubt wear she kept her ring. After a few second she took it out and wore it on her finger. Her expression was washed with guilt as she did. "I'm truly sorry Persha," she said.

Persha closed her eyes trying to hold back her tears, she knew why her friend had kept the ring from her- it would remind her of Jared. Flash backs flooded into her mind once she saw the ring come out of Maharet's pocket.

Jared stood in the forest held back by the two Suldam knights; Ituralde had her by the wrist with a look in his eyes that shouted spiting murder. Then what happened after Persha didn't know. Jared had saved her, she remembered him tackling Ituralde to the ground then calling to her to run away. She ran without thought, after Ituralde's agonizing revelation about Jared she couldn't even move, but she heard Jared's voice and followed what he said, he ran and left the love of her life, who had just saved her, in the hands of the enemy.

Maharet suddenly let out a terrfying scream and snapped Persha back into reality. The sage screamed and clutched at her temples before she collapsed on the floor. The scream brought the guards to enter the room before Persha could run to her friend's side.

"What happened lieutenant?" asked the knight rushing beside Persha, who was already checking Maharet for signs of vitality. She checked the sage's heartbeat, it was eratic and her extremities twitched uncontrollably. Her nervous system had been attacked, no doubt telepathically, through the link. Somehow Suldam had found a way to amplify their telepath's powers. "Quick, bring her to Abenander or Adella!" ordered Persha. The knight saluted and lifted Maharet over her shoulder and exited the room with the wizard trailing behind her.

Before they even disappeared behind the door frame the entire guild castle shook and a huge bolt of lightning crashed down on the outer walls. The window in Persha's room was shattered by the resulting flux of air that the lightning heated to over-expansion. It immediately occurred to Persha that Maharet wasn't the only one who was so deeply connected to the guild link, a number of other sages maintaining the land protectors most definitely met the same fate as Maharet, and now that they were unconscious the land protectors would begin dissipating. If Rhozen was one of those stationed to the telepathic brigade, there would be a high chance he would be since he was the most powerful telepath in the guild. Malacca would be severely crippled in the field of battle- that is if she still didn't fight. Persha looked outside her door to see that the knight and wizard were only beginning to regain themselves, Persha stood up and jumped out of the previously shattered window. Her hair and the sheer silk shawls of her dancer's garb whipped above her as she descended four stories down from the window of her room. People began to notice her; ally and enemy alike; she was a beacon to her friends and a warning to her enemies. She was going to war.

Thoughts began to stream across her head again but she pushed them away, there was only one thing she could allow to cross her mind. "Forth into war the cavalry charges, I am a Red Stallion!"

She was a few meters above the ground, if she didn't do anything to save herself she would surely die. Just when she was about to fall to her death she reached for her rapture rose and flicked her wrist. The whip flew upwards with such precision that it seemed that it was an extension of Persha's person. The whip wrapped around a neck of a gargoyle allowing Persha to swing safely down to the ground. She flicked her wrist again and the whip released from the gargoyle and coiled back into her grasp ready to be used.

The first Suldam emerged from the great breach in the wall, he was an assassin. He turned the corner of the wall but before he could cross into the caste Persha lashed her whip. The thorn encrusted whip coiled around the assassin's face, its thorns sinking into his skull. Persha pulled the whip back making the assassin's neck turn at high speed and break. The Suldam guildsmen who saw what Persha did to the assassin were hesitant at first, but then they thought that they would be able to overwhelm her by attacking all at once.

Persha cracked her whip at the floor, these ingrates were underestimating her again- it had happened the last guild wars and those who made that mistake paid for it with their lives. Persha was prepared to fight to the death to protect her guild, until her last breath she would hold back whoever tried to enter this breach.


	19. Part 19

**Part 19**

Jared hung limply, his limbs tied unto the support beams in Ituralde's extravagant tent. Ituralde had commanded the Blacksmith with the largest arms in the guild to torture Jared using Persha's rapture rose. The smith didn't use the thorn encrusted whip with the same finesse as Persha did , but then again his task didn't go beyond lifting the whip over his head and lashing it down at Jared's back as painfully as his abnormally large arms would allow him to.

The whip came down again, its thorns sinking down into Jared's flesh, for how many times it did at this point Jared didn't care anymore. His shirt hung tattered at his feet, completely ripped off before he was tortured. Jared's entire body was in agonizing pain, his arm still had the stiletto lodged in it, and his back was more wound than skin, but again Jared couldn't help but compare how meager it was to the pain in his heart. He sensed from the Suldam guild link all that was happening in the war. The outer wall had been destroyed, that was his fault, and He had told Ituralde about its weak point. If Malacca should fall, and Persha die it would all be his doing.

A large number of magic users in the guild were dead from the retaliation of Malacca while another large number was in critical condition from being overdosed with concentration and awakening potions, so that they could break the defense of the Malaccan telepaths and attack their minds. That was typical Ituralde tactics; use up as many lives as it needed to win a war, preserve the only life that mattered to him- his own. The thoughts put a bad taste in Jared's mouth; unfortunately it had to be mixed with the metallic taste of blood.

Before Suldam marched towards the Malaccan castle, Ituralde held Persha's rapture rose and was the one performing the lashing on Jared. "I will find her in the battle filed" the knight threatened "and I will bring her here so you can see me kill her." The words fueled Jared's rage to the brink of explosion. He needed to find a way to escape and save Persha from Ituralde.

The whip went down again making Jared cringed in pain. The smith was dim-wittedly chuckling behind Jared, not even trying to hide the fact that he was enjoying himself. Jared was at his wit's end, escaped seemed impossible. The smith raised the whip over his head and prepared to flog it down again, Jared closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain. Just when the smith was going to bring the whip down a commotion erupted outside the tent. The smith halted his arm midway before he glanced at the little space left open in the tent flap to see what was going on. Unfortunately for the black smith and fortunately for Jared, it was much too narrow to see anything significant. The smith turned to Jared and made sure his bonds were fixed, once he was satisfied that Jared wouldn't be able to escape he flung the tent flap away and stepped outside.

Jared was left in the tent alone, and he decided that it was his chance to escape, but how? A number of ideas entered his head but none worth while. The commotion outside was still continuing and at this point Jared began to get curious himself. He noticed that the smith had left the opening in the flap wider upon his exit. Jared raised his head to get a better look outside and just as he did the smith went flying into the tent before he slammed on the ground head first that the snap of his neck could literally be heard. Jared thought that the wars had found its way into the camp, but when he checked the guild link nothing told him that it did. Not mere moments after the smith had unceremoniously crashed back into the tent a male sage and a priest entered.

The sage had dark hair that at this moment was in disarray his eyes were purple and calling them piercing was an understatement. The priest that accompanied him had shoulder length auburn hair and blue eyes. Jared recognized them as Suldam members, not particularly significant guild members; Jared couldn't even remember taking second glances at them more than to remember their faces and stock them into his mental guild mate files, for his saboteur profession, incase they were needed.

The sage stepped forward to Jared and as he did he retrieved the stiletto from Jared's arm. Jared jerked from the jolt of pain, he closed his eyes a prepared himself for the slash to his throat that would follow. He knew that Ituralde didn't issue this order; Ituralde would not kill him until he saw Persha die, but then again there were hundreds in the guild who would have thousands of reasons why they would want him dead. To his surprise the knife went down on his bonds instead.

He collapsed on the ground and the priest immediately attended to him, he felt the priest's palms position on his chest before the warmth that came from the healing spread through his entire body wiping away his fatigue and wounds. He stood up and stared at the sage on par. The healing had closed the wound in his arm, but this priest's talent was below regenerating it to its original state.

"Who are you?" Jared asked. His eyes constantly darted back and forth from the stiletto that was still in the Sage's hands. He knew the sage's name, Vornamen Edalaram, he was testing whether he would be lied too or not, if he wasn't he'd continue asking questions until he understood what was happening right now, and if he was, he'd try to figure that part out later.

"I am Vornamen Edalaram; you should know who I am…Master Saboteur." The sage said with a tint of amusement in his voice. Jared felt a cold chill run down his spine, how could this person know him as the Master Saboteur? He had no prominent position in the guild; he wasn't anything special, nothing worth any attention to pay to. Or so he thought, it occurred to Jared that only Ituralde a few higher ups in the guild knew about his occupation, to the others he was nothing more than another guild member. This sage could have hidden his true identity as well as Jared did, probably even better.

Jared stepped back at this point; he looked around the room and found one of Ituralde's many spare swords leaning against the table. He quickly grabbed the sword with his available hand and quickly pointed it to the sage's neck. The priest's hand went to the sword mace at his side but the sage's signal to halt stayed him where he was.

"Drop the knife!" Jared commanded. The sage obeyed rather half mindedly. "Now, who are you?" asked Jared once more, but this time with a different tone of voice. The sage smiled "I already told you Jared, I am Vornamen Edalaram," Jared thrust the blade forward a little and drew a trickle of blood from the sage's neck. "Don't make me ask again sage, you know what I mean, who are you?"

"How very quaint, I'd expect nothing less from Turian's apprentice." Jared unconsciously began to lower the blade. "What do you know of my master?"

The sage wiped away the trickle of blood off his neck "I was the second in command of your master's rebellion Jared; there are still some of us in Suldam who believe in your master's vision of a guild."

"Impossible!" Jared shouted "All of you were killed; I myself fished you out one by one. The real second in command was executed along with my master."

"Merely voluntary decoys, except for your master sadly," An expression of sadness washed over Vornamen's face.

Jared realized that he had lowered the sword and quickly brought it up again. "So you've come here to avenge my master and kill me? It seems that you know of my profession and that I betrayed your rebellion." The sword in Jared's hand began to shake, he knew that he deserved whatever these men wanted to do with him, but he couldn't die just yet, not without saving Persha first.

"Yes Jared," began Vornamen "We know of what you have done and what you have been doing for Ituralde, but we also know more, we know of the drug that was used on you. Your master knew even before he died. But he thought that it would be better if our faction would disappear for the time being, pretend to be annihilated. So he sacrificed his own life, and we have been conducting our actions in the shadows ever since." Vornamen paused for a few seconds, waiting for any reaction from Jared but the younger man just kept quiet and waited for more of the explanation, like why an attempt on his life wasn't happening yet. Deciding that Jared knew there was more to the story, Vornamen continued his explanation. "Your master only had but one wish before he died, for you to be part of the rebellion."

"But why are you only approaching me now?" interrupted Jared throwing the sword away in frustration, it may have been a unintelligent decision disposing of his only line of defense but his rage overcame all common sense "It's been years since my master was executed, all those years I believed myself to be what I was doing- a saboteur. I've been Ituralde's lapdog all those years, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"You were too closely tied with Ituralde that we couldn't approach you without risk." Explained Vornamen his voice increasing a little below a shout, he calmed himself down before he continued "We ask you now Jared, be part of the rebellion against Ituralde, follow in your master's foot steps and fulfill his vision."

There was a silence that came over the tent. Jared remembered the day his master was executed; Turian had looked right at him before the moment of Turian's death and mouthed something. Jared always thought that it meant his master blamed him for his death that it was a final act to show Jared how much he was despised. Jared couldn't help but look away from his master before the guillotine went down. But now as he thought back, he remembered no signs of hate in his master's eyes. His master had looked to him that day to say that everything that was happening was needed, and Jared for the first time in years, actually realized what his master had mouthed- I trust you.

Jared looked up at the sage and the priest. They were looking back at him waiting for his reply and a ghostly familiar feeling began to resurface from a part in his heart that he had kept too hidden and too deep since his master's death. It was the feeling of being part of a guild, a guild where you protected your friends and they protected you in turn. It was like what Malacca had, and what their chant had so often reminded him of what he lacked. Now, he was part of something like that.

"I don't think that I deserve to join you after what I've done," Jared replied "But I have to save someone, and I am in no position to reject any help. I am honored to fight by your side."

Vornaman nodded before he extended his arm forward to shake with Jared. Jared for the first time in years took someone's offer of friendship without any hesitation.


	20. Part 20 A

_Hey to all my readers! Thanks a lot for taking time to read my story I hoped you like it. Believe it or not this is the final chapter of this fic, the culmination of events. I split it into two parts so you guys won't be overwhelmed. I'd like to thank AboutMySanity and if you liked my fic then you should thank him/her as well since he/she was the one that made me continue this fic!_

_Since this is the last chapter, my fic won't be posted on the first page anymore, so less people will be able to see it. I hope all my readers can help me with this, please tell all your friends who you think might be interested in reading my story. Please have fun reading the last chapter and don't forget to review. All of you have been great readers XD!_

_-Remir'wrath d'Aetherius_

**Part 20 A**

Jared exited the tent together with Vornamen. Outside a battle had just transpired, there were Suldam guild mates both lying dead on the ground and standing over those who were dead. The rebellion had finally emerged from their hiding and attacked Suldam from the inside. The siege on Malacca was a perfect opportunity to do so, with majority of the guild at war, the base would be left nearly defenseless, and with a few strings pulled the members of the rebellion would be stationed to protect the camp.

Vornamen placed a hand on Jared's shoulder. "We have been planning this day for five years." He explained. "Tonight if everything goes as planned, we will finally purge ourselves of Ituralde."

"Doesn't Ituralde sense anything from the link? Won't a number of guild members suddenly falling down unconscious catch his attention?"

A proud smirk appeared on Vornamen's face "No need to worry about that Jared, I've created a telepathic loop over the last hour, as far as everybody else is concerned nothing out of the ordinary is happening here."

Jared was surprised at the sage's remark, and more so at his manner of saying it. Breaking into a solid telepathic connection created by an emperium was a feat all by itself requiring an army of telepaths working together, but to be able to manipulate then project it to the rest of the guild population was beyond amazing, and Vornamen spoke of it like it was nothing more than what he had for supper a couple of days back.

Jared checked the guild link; it was true that nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary coming from the camp. He looked at one of the enemy Suldam members he recognized, who was lying unconscious or possibly dead on the ground, comparing it to what he sensed from the link the same person was awake and well. Jared turned his head to look at Vornamen, the sage was directing orders to the members of the faction, he had an air of command about him that Jared could only compare to that of four other people, his old master Turian, Reginald Ituralde, and Abenander and Adella Sutorin. To think that Jared had always been around this sage during his stay in the Suldam guild house and he never once thought that Vornamen was anything beyond what he seemed to be.

Everything was carried out at an unbelievable pace and before Jared knew it the rebel faction was rallied and ready to attack. Vornamen stood beside Jared at the fore front of the army, beside him a mounted knight raised the silver leash and collar standard of Suldam. Jared stared at the standard with disdain, his teeth gritted absent-mindedly from the rage. He was surprised when Vornamen's hand came down on his shoulder. The sage gazed at him with determination in his eyes.

"Don't worry Jared," Vornamen began "It's only a distraction to hide our true allegiance until the last second," he said referring to the standard.

Jared obligatorily accepted the banner despite his emotions, the last thing he wanted to do now was to charge behind the standard of Suldam, the thought itself made him cringe; but it was something he just had to live with if he hoped to save Persha.

The priests and monks who could open warp portals stepped forward and retrieved blue gemstones from their persons, they each muttered their incantations and as they did the air began to swirl before a bar of light appeared as if someone had taken a dagger and slashed through the fabric of time and space, the bar extended and expanded until it became a well sized doorway. Through the warp a forest could be seen, it was leagues closer to the castle of Malacca and the warps would bring the rebel faction there in a few seconds where it would take them a full day to trek it on foot.

Vornamen spoke a command to Weiss, the priest that had healed Jared's arm, and he thunderously redirected it to the rest of the rebels. People began marching through the warps immediately, Jared being one of them. He traveled leagues in one step, one step that brought him closer to saving Persha.

………………………………………

A rogue jumped into the air, dagger gleaming as it caught the light; he pointed it down as he began to descend at full speed towards Persha. Persha quickly pivoted on her foot and the rogue landed on an empty space, Persha spun around and slammed her heel on the base of the rogue's neck, immediately rendering him dead. An alchemist appeared out of nowhere and lifted his battle axe over his head ready to chop Persha down but an arrow shot his direction and pierced him through the chest killing him before he could do so.

Persha looked towards the shooter, it was one of her guild mates, she nodded to him in thanks and he did the same. A number of her guild mates had attended to the breach in the wall so she was no longer defending it by herself, they managed to kill off any Suldam member that had attempted to enter the wall, but for everyone they managed to kill another took his place.

None of her present guild members seemed to be aware that she was not allowed to fight, or if they were, they were much too grateful that she was there to fight beside them and help turn the tide of the battle.

A large monk entered through the breach, he smiled and looked around the area nodding his head like an idiot. The posturing fool must have thought that Malacca would pose no challenge and that he was going to get himself a large number of kills. Persha scoffed at his arrogance and singled him out of everybody else who entered with him. She acquired the dagger off the hand of the rogue that she just killed and threw it straight at the monk. The monk didn't even see the knife coming before it impaled him through the side of his head, obviously killing him before he even had a chance to fight.

Persha whipped at the other Suldam members and they fell down dead one after the other. The breach was being protected considerably but Persha knew they couldn't keep this up forever.

A group of Malaccan fighters decided to get closer to the breach with a plan in mind where they would defend and advance slowly until they managed to push Suldam out of the castle. Persha was hesitant at first, but then realizing that the plan would prove very effective if done properly she decided to join them, in addition to that, Adella would have a less chance of spotting her if she was outside the walls of the castle.

She ran towards her guild members but midway there was an explosion and the members of Malacca were thrown back violently, dangerously burned and broken. A wizard with extremely long blonde hair stepped forward with orbs of raging flames hovering above his claw-like hands, but he wasn't the one that caught Persha's attention, behind the wizard was Ituralde mounted on his abnormally large and savage pecopeco. He carried a sword that was vulgarly dripping fresh crimson blood all over the ground.

Ituralde smirked once he saw Persha; he pointed his sword at her threateningly as if saying that he was coming for her, a droplet of blood trickled from its point, Persha watched the blood fall on the ground and at the moment blood and soil touched Ituralde charged his mount.

The hunters, who didn't approach the breach and survived, fired their arrows. The projectiles left their bows and flew straight for Ituralde. The Suldam wizard who accompanied Ituralde waved his arm and as he did javelins of fire materialized and flew towards the arrows. Each bolt of fire found an individual arrow for itself and incinerated it to non-existence. The wizard turned towards the hunters and waved his hand again summoning forth a second wave of fire bolts that killed the hunters just as easily as it destroyed their arrows.

Ituralde finally came within range of Persha and swung his sword violently, Persha somersaulted to evade the swing. The sword passed under her managing to slice through the ends of her hair. Persha landed on the ground and the pecopeco wasted no time to snap at her ferociously. Persha evaded the bird-like monster's beak; she didn't know how many of her friends met their fate under that pecopeco's snap. She knew that fighting Ituralde would be difficult enough but if she had to watch out for his mount as well she'd loose what little chance she had.

She lashed her whip at the beast but Ituralde positioned his sword in the way, instead of coiling around the pecopeco's neck where Persha had aimed it for, her whip coiled around his sword instead. The thorns of Persha's rapture rose pierced through flesh like it was paper, it even managed to puncture stone but against steel the best it could do was scratch and dent.

The wizard hurled another fiery javelin at Persha's direction. The javelin was traveling fast, leaving Persha little time to decide, if she didn't let go of her whip the fire bolt would make do with her like it did with the arrows and her guild mates but without her whip she'd be left defenseless for her fight with Ituralde.

The fire bolt was a mere meter away and Persha impulsively let go of her whip and jumped away. Instead of her, the fire bolt made contact with her whip, the flame quickly burned through the plant based weapon all the way until the portion that coiled around Ituralde's sword, for a few seconds the blade of Ituralde's sword was engulfed in flames but it died out as soon as there was no more of the rapture rose left for it to burn.

Persha resented the destruction of her rapture rose, it was her second lost and she had only one left, she had let go of it with hopes that she could some how retrieve it later. She stared daggers at the wizard; he was getting as bothersome as the pecopeco. The wizard was laughing manically as he collected fire into his palms.

"Are you afraid of fire little girl?" he mocked with a voice as coarse a gravel mixed with broken glass.

The wizard pulled his arm back to add force to his throw and as he did the fire took the shape of a spear. He threw the fire bolt at Persha then immediately began to create a new one. The wizard's long blonde hair was flying around him as he launched fire bolt after fire bolt; Persha could do nothing else but evade them. Ituralde just watched as he let his subordinate play with Persha, he began laughing himself but unlike the wizard's laugh his was one of pure malevolence.

Persha had to pull off a number of extremely difficult acrobatic and flexible maneuvers to evade the wizard's bombardment, she was in the middle of a flip when the wizard raised his foot then slammed it on the ground. A ripple of seismic force emanated from where the wizard had stomped. Persha landed from her flip but the ground quaked violently and she lost her balance, the wizard wasted no time before he created the largest fireball he could, which was about his height in diameter, and hurled it at Persha's direction. Persha could do nothing but close her eyes, she couldn't regain her footing because the earth still rippled under her and there was no way she could evade such a large projectile lying down.

To her surprise she felt steam wash over her face instead of flames she opened her eyes and found a wall of ice standing between her and the wizard. Most of the face of the ice had melted from the collision with the flames but its base was very much intact.

Persha looked around and immediately found her rescuer. Rhozen stood behind her his silver hair matted on his forehead with sweat, his cape fluttered in the wind and his eyes glowed blue with magical energy that crackled and fluctuated from intensity apparently he wasn't stationed as part of he telepathic squad.

The Suldam wizard hissed at Rhozen, he wasn't too fond of having his incredibly powerful fire ball terminated by the wall of ice that Rhozen summoned. He materialized another javelin of fire and hurled it at the other wizard. Rhozen lifted a gloved hand in front of his face as if attempting to catch the enemy wizard's flame. Rhozen's palm glowed blue and the air around it dropped in temperature incredibly quickly. As the fire bolt headed straight into Rhozen's palm it began to dissipate unable to hold together in an area that was hundreds of degrees below zero.

The Suldam wizard wailed in irritation and initiated a new bombardment of fire bolts; Rhozen countered them all just as easily before he began his own assault. Icicles began forming around the Suldam wizard and falling down to try and impale him, he called forth a sheet of flame over his head that reduced the icicles into steam. The glow in Rhozen's eyes intensified, the steam immediately solidified into the frozen dagger once more and plowed through the enemy wizard's fire wall slashing him on the arm. The wizard collapsed on his knees clutching at his arm and hissing through his teeth at Rhozen.

Persha looked at Rhozen; her friend's face was washed with an expression of pure anger. He had surely found out about the assault on Maharet and couldn't compel himself to remain his calm cool self anymore.

"What are you doing Ravenum!" shouted Ituralde infuriately to the wizard "Kill him! If you don't-you'll realize that I won't hesitate to kill you even though you're my most powerful spell caster,"

The wizard, who had been named as Ravenum, gritted his teeth out of anger. He was the only one in Suldam who could openly show any irritation he had with Ituralde, though only as far as he thought he could push his luck, like clenched teeth or the occasional scoff; any further than that and Ituralde would have had his head under the guillotine a long time ago. He looked away from Ituralde and back at Rhozen, and then pointed a challenging finger at the enemy wizard.

"Let's take this to the skies," Ravenum said in a severe manner.

Rhozen didn't respond back to Ravenum but he was already clenching his own teeth from anger. Both wizards rose a few meters above the ground, Ravenum's eyes began to glow in the same manner as Rhozen's except crimson instead of blue.

They began muttering spells in unison and as they did electricity began to fluctuate from their body. Persha watched as the skies darkened and the clouds churned above the two rivaling spell casters. Both of them rose higher and higher until they were miles above the castle walls. Lightning began to incite in the clouds, it wasn't the normal bluish color that mages wielded so easily, it was a vivid vermilion in color and wild like an untamed bull. The first strike finally sailed, it came from Ravenum. Lightning was one of a wizard's most dangerous weapons since it could not be destroyed; only redirected. Rhozen did just that, he used his own lightning to change the course of Ravenum's attack to the only other force that could absorb its energy-the ground. The lightning strike came plummeting down with no heed to what it would hit.

It crashed right in the middle of the battle field with a blinding explosion. The charred bodies of people that were hit were thrown around like rag dolls if not fully annihilated. The two wizards above began dueling with lightning as fast as their magical powers would allow them to, and as they did all of their deflections came plunging down to earth.

People began running for cover from the two wizards, the lightning was oblivious to friend or foe- it just came down upon redirection. One bolt came charging down towards the area of the breach, Persha stood up and ran behind one of the gigantic chunks from the wall for cover, Ituralde tried to turn his mount but the pecopeco was too spooked and was rearing out of control. Ituralde couldn't control the beast anymore so he drove his sword into the pecopeco's skull and jumped away just in time before the lightning struck.

Persha closed her eyes; the lightning was bright enough to blind anybody who looked directly into it. She felt the giant blast of hot air that came from the lightning expanding it and debris was raining down the vicinity dangerously.

When everything finally stopped Persha opened her eyes, she wasn't sure whether or not Ituralde was still out there. The lightning strike had caused part of the castle to collapse blocking anybody coming from the castle to enter the area of the breech. Persha was alone, nobody would be able to come and save her anymore.

A dead hunter lay face down a within an extended arm's reach of Persha, his bow was intact and his quiver was still full. Persha retrieved them both; she slung the quiver over her shoulder and nocked one arrow into the bow. Even though she changed her weapon mastery upon achieving her title as a dancer, she never forgot her archer training.

Persha stepped out from behind the chunk of wall and pulled the bow string back ready to fire the arrow at the first sign of Ituralde. To her surprise, Ituralde was nowhere to be seen, the burned carcass of the pecopeco lay smoking where it died but Persha didn't see any sign that Ituralde was there as well

Suddenly a fist punched out from a large pile of debris. Out of surprise, Persha let loose her arrow. The hand was punctured through and a roar of pain came from under the debris. Ituralde broke out of the debris like some undead breaking through its grave, his palm was bleeding from where Persha shot the arrow but he still held unto his sword with the other one.

"You'll pay for that girl," said Ituralde through gritted teeth, his face was murderous and his arm twitched to use his sword. Persha nocked a second arrow into the bow and prepared for the fight.


	21. Part 20 B

**Part 20 B**

The air was hot and thick from where Abenander stood high up in the veranda; he stared at Rhozen and the other wizard who were clashing with the dangerous vermilion lightning high up above in the sky. Another deflection was performed and the lightning came striking down to the ground.

Abenander sensed from the link all his guild mates who were in pain, the healers were working themselves to exhaustion, and they healed only the most serious of wounds, in fear of all of them collapsing before the war was over. Abenander couldn't resist himself, he turned around to help with the healing but Lucia's hand caught him by the arm, the blue-haired black smith stared him down unyieldingly.

"Not yet Abenander, the guild must see you." Her grip on his arm tightened, she had a lean and slender body of a woman but her strength was all-smith.

Abenander knew that Lucia was correct, the guild was supposed to see him; they had to be able to look towards their guild master and see that he wasn't going to run away and hopefully make them want to stay and fight themselves.

Abenander stared back at Lucia for a while before he returned to his position. Lucia waited a few more seconds before she let go of Abenander's arm as if she was thinking that he would try to escape.

As Abenander looked down from the highest balcony in the castle, a strange luminescence that no priest couldn't possible recognize was coming from the clearing- an opening warp portal.

Abenander strained to see who was coming out, the clearing was far but the standard of whoever it was could just be seen if he focused hard enough. The people who came out began marching into the battle field and as they did the standard came nearer and became easier to distinguish.

A gasp escaped Abenander's mouth as he finally made out the images on the standard; it was yet another silver and leash, and behind the banner man stood Jared. Abenander couldn't contain his rage at seeing Jared, Jared was responsible for all of this, the suffering of Malacca could all be pinned down on that one man, and Abenander swore to make him pay for that.

Abenander turned towards the black smith "It's time Lucia, we have to fight now," he ordered in a manner befitting of a guild master. Lucia didn't disagree but merely nodded and followed Abenander into the castle obediently.

Whether it was an unlucky twist of fate or if some greater force was moving the events in the world, the two Malaccan masters left the veranda untimely by just mere seconds too early.

The force of Suldam seemed to regain new vigor at seeing reinforcements arrive, but it was quickly lost.

Vornamen stepped forward beside the banner man, he raised his hand towards the standard and flame immediately erupted from his palms setting fire to the flag of Suldam, almost ceremoniously.

He then point the same hand at the nearest Suldam guild mate-a knight- and a bolt of electricity discharged from his palm burning right through the knight's chest.

"What the hell do you think you're doing sage?" shouted a Suldam hunter. Vornamen turned towards him and let off a series of lightning bolts until there was nothing left of the hunter.

The rebel faction immediately charged into the battle fore and began fighting with the guild members of Suldam.

This caused a massive confusion within the ranks of Suldam; most of its guild members recognized at least one person from the rebel faction, so to them they saw their guild members killing each other, the hysteria caused them to turn on their other guild mates who weren't with the rebels.

Malacca on the other hand was more than happy to see Suldam going at each other's throats, they didn't fully understand what was occurring but they were in no position to complain.

Jared stayed close to Vornamen who did a wonderful job at calling down lightning on every enemy that tried to come too close, and every rare time that somebody managed to, Jared treated the sword like an over-sized dagger and did a well enough job himself. He wasn't one trained to use a sword, he could use a knife or a dagger like everyone else, but he was running blind with Ituralde's sword.

"Go find Ituralde, Jared. Kill him the first chance you get!" bellowed Vornamen as he summoned forth another bolt of lightning.

Jared stared at the sage, "But Vornamen, I thought you wanted to kill Ituralde? I only want to save Persha."

The sage didn't look at Jared but smiled. "Turian and I always argued about which one of us would be the one to rid this world of Ituralde once he had the chance," he said. Vornamen finally turned towards Jared and met him eye to eye. "You remind me so much of him, every action, every expression and most importantly his passion to do what he believed in was right. Jared, you may be the only way that I let my old friend be the one that kills Ituralde."

The twang of a bowstring sounded somewhere within the battle, an arrow flew straight for Jared; Vornamen saw the arrow coming and quickly stepped between the forth coming arrow and the bard. As expected, the arrow struck Vornamen on the left side f his chest.

Jared watched as the sage fell to the ground with the arrow protruding from his chest.

"Vornamen!" shouted Jared as he caught the sage in his arms. The sage was coughing out blood with every exhalation he did. "Weiss come here!" shouted Jared calling for the auburn-haired priest.

Weiss quickly attended to the dying Vornamen, he pulled out the arrow and placed his hands over the wounds. The white light emanated from his palms and closed the puncture to Vornamen's chest but the sage still continued coughing out blood.

Jared looked up at Weiss who shook his head. "The arrow punctured his heart and lungs; I was trained to be a priest for battle. This is much beyond my skills as a healer." said Weiss sorrowfully.

"You have to be able to do something!" shouted Jared desperately "I thought priests had powers to pull people out from death?"

"I require a blue gemstone to resurrect someone and the person I resurrect will retain his old wounds and die all the same. There's nothing more we can do."

Tears began streaming down Jared's cheeks he spoke to Vornamen, "I thought I had finally found someone who looked out for me like my old master did. You can't die yet Vornamen,"

Vornamen smiled despite his current state and grasped Jared's hand with his own. Jared was surprised at how strong Vornamen's grip was still. "No matter how much you see your master in me Jared," he said feebly "It is nothing compared to how much I see him in you." Vornamen reached for the sword that Jared had dropped and placed it back in the bard's hands. "Go on Turian, my old friend, fulfill our vision." with that Vornamen closed his eyes and his head fell back.

Weiss began reciting a prayer for the dead, and Jared stood up. He sensed Ituralde through the link and found him at the breach. He immediately set off in that direction.

As Weiss knelt down beside Vornamen's dead body, saying his lament prayer, he said a separate prayer for Jared.

………………………………………………………

Persha fired an arrow, this time she was sure that it would finally hit Ituralde. Unfortunately the arrow shattered under Ituralde's sword once again.

Persha felt for the arrows remaining in her quiver and her eyebrows arched in agitation as she realized there were only four left. She couldn't waste any of them anymore, she had to be creative.

Ituralde tightened his grip on his sword handle, the blade glowed orange and began to pulsate. He ran up to Persha, and brought his sword down full force. Persha jumped into the air to evade the slash, Ituralde's sword missed her again by centimeters, but it hit the floor and an explosion erupted where it did.

Persha was thrown back by the explosion; she slammed into the floor brutally her quiver and arrows smashing under her. One of her ribs was bruised and she strained to push her self up.

As she did a pair of feet in greaves approached her. She looked up and saw Ituralde staring down at her masochistically.

"Down already, girl?" Ituralde mocked "I have to say I expected more, might I remind you how fiercely you fought during the last guild wars? You brought down an entire regiment of my guild all by yourself. Where's is that ferocity now? I want to see it! I want to fight it!"

Despite the pain Persha spoke back "It didn't go anywhere," replied Persha straightforwardly. With all her remaining might she swung the bow in her hands and it broke in half on Ituralde's face.

Ituralde had his hand over his face where Persha smashed the bow in half. He slowly brought it down revealing his face to be bloody where pieces of wood from the bow had embedded themselves.

"My my," he said chuckling "Apparently it didn't" he raised his sword over his head and it began to glow orange and pulsate more violently than the first time. Before Ituralde could slash down, a sword ran him through the back and pierced all the way until it came out the other side of his body.

"That's for everything you did to me," said Jared through clenched teeth. He pulled out his sword and Ituralde slumped down to his knees.

"Jared," shouted Persha, once she spotted her lover. Jared immediately ran and knelt beside her.

"Persha you're hurt," said Jared placing his hand over hers. He was so happy that she was talking to him, after what happened in the garden; he thought that she would hate him forever. "I'm sorry for everything Persha," he began crying on her hands, refusing to look into her eyes "I'm so sorry; I hurt you, I'm so sor…"

Persha kissed Jared and stopped him from speaking. Jared was lost in his kiss with Persha, he was happy that she was speaking to him, but she still loved him. After everything that had happened, after all the secrets were revealed she still loved him and that only made him love her more.

In the middle of the kiss Persha suddenly pushed Jared aside, at first Jared didn't know what was happening then he saw the dreadful sight in front of him. Ituralde had attempted to stab Jared but Persha saw him coming and pushed Jared aside making Ituralde's sword plunge into her chest instead.

Jared didn't want to believe what was happening, he had killed Ituralde already yet the man was there, and he had killed Persha.

Ituralde placed his boot on Persha's shoulder and kicked her off his sword. He turned to Jared and opened his palm to reveal what he held. It was an empty potion bottle; there were still some traces of nearly transparent white liquid on the bottom.

"You better had made sure that I was really dead, didn't you Jared." said Ituralde as he threw the potion bottle aside. It shattered into a million pieces as it hit the floor, much like Jared's life when he saw Persha die.

Jared was still in shock, he couldn't say anything or do anything; he just stared at Persha's lifeless body. He wasn't crying- this was too much pain that he couldn't even cry over it.

Ituralde realized that Jared wasn't paying attention to him; he just stared at the dead form of his lover. "Well, I promised you that I would kill her in front of you didn't I? You should know by now Jared, whenever I promise something, I always deliver."

Ituralde's words hit a nerve and snapped Jared out of his shock. He turned towards the knight his anger beyond measure. He gripped unto his sword so forcefully that his knuckles began to turn white.

Ituralde took out another potion bottle from his person. He flipped open the stopper with his thumb and immediately smoke and a sizzling sound came out. The liquid inside the bottle was red and almost luminescent. Jared recognized it immediately, it was a berserk potion.

Ituralde quickly glugged down all the contents into his mouth ravenously, a quarter of it spilling all over the front of his tabard. He shattered the bottle on the floor afterwards and in seconds the potion began to take effect.

His pupils dilated and his veins and arteries came bulging out from his temples and the sides of his neck. His muscles enlarged thrice their size and ripped through his cloths while his armor could barely contain them.

He dashed directly in front of Jared in a flash and brought up his knee to Jared's gut at high speed. Jared was launched into the air with all the wind knocked out of him. Before Jared could even begin to fall back towards the ground, Ituralde jumped up and slammed the pommel of his sword on the small of Jared's back.

Jared couldn't even fight back, Ituralde was moving to fast for him to follow, and he could only let himself be thrown around by Ituralde. He felt like a mouse that was being played with by a cat before it was eaten.

…………………………………………

Abenander finally reached the entry towards the garden where the breach was struck; Lucia had gone to fetch whoever she could find to help.

As he turned the corner he was met by a gigantic pile of rubble that completely prevented him from getting to the breach. He didn't have time for anything else; his only choice was to go up to the window overlooking the breach and teleport down.

Abenander turned on his heel and made for the stairs. He wasted enough time as it was, hopefully he wasn't too late. He ran as fast as his feet could carry him, faster than he ever went in his entire life.

…………………………………………

Jared was lying on the ground unable to move after continually being thrown around like a rag doll; Ituralde was going to prolong this suffering as much as he could. He didn't want to kill Jared so quickly that all the so called _"fun"_ would be lost.

Jared had to think of a way to fight back, he dug deep within his mind and a solitary memory resurfaced.

It was completely black, everything was dark. It wasn't night time nor was Jared in an enclosed room; he simply wore a dark blindfold over his eyes.

"Listen to my voice, Jared" Jared immediately recognized the voice, it was Turian's. This was one of his first training sessions with his old master when he was still a very young archer aspiring to be bard.

"Explain to me how an archer improves his concentration when using a bow," asked Turian. His voice seemed to come all over the room, as a bard he could manipulate his voice, project it so it would be near impossible to know where he was without your eyes.

Jared obediently answered his master's question in his voice as a child. "Master, when the spirit and balance of the shooting is correct the result will be for the arrow to arrive in the target. An archer must empty his mind focus on the movement of pulling back the bowstring, focus on the target, and be one with his bow and his surroundings."

"Excellent Jared, but do you think you can do the same as a bard? Do you think that you can do what you do with your bow and arrow, except this time with sound?

Jared hesitated "I'm not sure Master, I've never tried."

The sound of a violin began to fill the room. Jared knew it to be his master's nobody in the world could play as well.

"Now empty your mind young one," Turian said as he continued playing "Do as you do with your bow, but this time with the sound around you."

Jared did as he was told he didn't know how long it took but slowly, images began forming in his head, every sound bounced off from all the surfaces in the room then back into his ears where his mind would process them.

Jared was ecstatic the first time he managed to perform the skill, with the sound he could sense the most minuscule grooves in the walls, and he could distinguish a solitary hair on his head from all the others. It was like seeing with your eyes only more.

The music stopped and Jared's blindfold was taken off. Turian was staring at him with a broad smile on his face. "I'm very proud of you Jared" he said "Very proud."

Jared went back into reality; a smiled appeared on his face. He stood up and mouthed a thank you to his master. Ituralde stood in front of Jared, chuckling like the mad man he was.

Jared ripped a piece of cloth from his jacket and tied it over his eyes, immediately when the make-shift blindfold shrouded everything in darkness, the images from Jared's hearing began to form.

Ituralde's chuckling made enough sound for Jared to see his face; the lightning strikes also provided a good source of sound for Jared to create a perfect area of the area around him.

"Prefer to be blind folded when you die," asked Ituralde barley managing to keep his chuckling down. "I'll grant you your request Jared, Now die!"

Ituralde dashed towards Jared, preparing to deliver his final slash. He swung his arm as strongly as he could but was surprised when the dull sound of steel meeting steel reverberated in the air.

He slashed again and again but each time Jared managed to block his attacks each time. His fury began building up and his attacks became more savage with each succession.

Jared listened closely; he heard the slightest change in Ituralde's strikes as his sword cut through the air. He saw Ituralde's footing change with every scratch they made on the ground.

Ituralde slashed for wildly, completely forgetting all the stances and perfect forms needed for using a sword. Jared ducked and the sword passed over his head, he followed through with a slash of his own that sliced of Ituralde's arm.

Ituralde let out a roar of pain as his arm was hacked clean off together with his sword. He attempted to reach for another potion with his remaining arm but Jared kicked it out of his hands and it smashed on the wall, impossible to be drunk.

Jared pulled of his blind fold and walked over to Ituralde who was trying to crawl away.

"That was for my arm!" he shouted as he picked up Ituralde by the collar. "This is for Vornamen!" Jared shouted as he thrust the sword into the knight's gut, "This is for my master!" he said doing the same thing. "And this is for Persha!" Jared let go of Ituralde's collar and swung the sword as much as he could. The blade cut off Ituralde's head as cleanly off as a decapitation could be.

The knight's headless body fell on the floor and as it did, miles north in the Suldam guild castle, the emperium began glowing violently, the first crack appeared followed by another then a third until it completely shattered into a million pieces.

Back in the Malaccan guild house, Jared felt the guild link created by the emperium slowly dissipate. Ituralde hadn't chosen anybody to succeed him as guild master, so the emperium shattered into itself. He and the rebel faction would have felt the dissipation of the guild link earlier since they didn't want it and rejected it. The other Suldam members would not be able to sense the guild's destruction for a few more minutes.

Jared ran to Persha, and took her into his arms. He strained to hear her heart beating but it wasn't. Persha was dead he couldn't bring her back.

As he cried on Persha shoulder there was an eruption of light behind him, He quickly turned around and grabbed the sword, if anybody wanted to desecrate Persha's body they would have to go through him.

As he turned around a fist slammed into his jaw. "What did you do to her!" shouted Abenander as pushed Jared away and took Persha into his arms.

The misunderstanding was apparent, Abenander saw Persha with a wound caused by a sword to her chest, and Jared was kneeling over her bloody sword grasped in his hand. If only the body of Ituralde still had its head then everything would be more understandable but sadly it wasn't.

Abenander pulled out a blue gemstone from his robe then placed it over Persha's heart. He kissed the dancer girl on the forehead before he laid her down on the ground.

He took out a mace from his belt that was plated with solid gold, it resembled a golden scepter but it was what it was, a weapon used to bludgeon others to death. Abenander rarely fought; in fact he had only taken out his mace seven times in his lifetime. But if it was a final resort he had to use it

"You killed Persha!" shouted Abenander swinging his golden mace violently.

"I didn't kill her!" Jared desperately tried to explain, while he blocked Abenander's attacks.

"All the words you speak are lies! Malacca lies in ruin because of you! Persha died because of you,"

Abenander's word affected Jared and the younger man failed to guard himself from the following attack. The mace slammed into his temple and he fell on the ground disoriented.

Abenander threw his mace to the side and began punching Jared repeatedly. He didn't want to listen to any of Jared's explanations.

Persha found herself in a place surrounded completely in white light, she was flying or floating, she wasn't too sure. Her memories were vague she could remember things that happened before but they were just out of reach for her to bring to the surface, but for some reason she didn't care. She felt at peace and all the burdens and pains of life were gone.

Suddenly in the infinite whiteness she heard a voice, it was calling her. She couldn't name the voice, she recognized it but only as if from a dream. She listened to it, it was distant but she knew it was calling for her.

Then she finally knew to whom that voice belonged to, she mouthed it _"Jared"_. Immediately when she said the name a force began to tug on her weakly at first then more forcefully. She was moving, the force was pulling her the infinite whiteness had disappeared, she was in space with the stars and other heavenly bodies but she still traveled fast and they all just whisked by her faster than a blink of an eye.

On and on she traveled until she saw Midgard, she came down from the sky free falling into the earth, it was less than a second when she realized she was falling into her body, when she did she woke up and gave an extremely deep gasp like she was dunked into a pool of ice water.

She looked at her palms then felt her face, she was alive again. She remembered pushing Jared aside and taking Ituralde's strike herself. She fingered her chest where the sword had stabbed her and found nothing there.

Then, she remembered that Jared and Ituralde were still there, she looked around and found Abenander and Jared fighting instead.

"Abenander stop!" she shouted running towards the two men.

Jared saw Persha alive again and was yet again distracted so he took Abenander's fist to his face for the second time. He couldn't believe it Persha was alive; Abenander had brought her back to life.

Persha grabbed unto Abenander's arm trying to hold it back from striking Jared again. "Abenander please stop! Jared isn't evil!" she begged. The priest pushed her aside and continued punching the bard.

"Get back into the castle Persha! This man killed you and you're protecting him!" shouted Abenander

"He didn't kill me Abenander! Please stop," begged Persha yet again as she desperately tried to restrain Abenander.

"Persha! This man must pay for what he has done to Malacca! Look around you and see for yourself, this is his doing, he must die!" Abenander picked up a sword that was lying on the ground and lifted it over his head.

"No!!" shouted Persha as she stepped in front of Abenander and pushed him back with all of her strength.

The priest stumbled back into the wall and fate proved to be a cruel mistress yet again, for all the places that the lightning from the two dueling wizards in the sky could have struck, it struck the wall directly over Abenander. The wall collapsed over the priest, crushing him under its enormous weight and killing him within the moment.

A surge ran through, the Malaccan guild link. The war turned silent for all the red stallions. The guild master had died, his presence gone from the link. Whether coincidence or an omen, the gigantic flag of the rearing red stallion on the highest tower in the castle, ripped of its pole and came fluttering down to the ground.

The entry way from the castle which had been blocked by the debris was blasted open, and behind it stood, Adella, Lucia and Sonon.

They saw Jared and Persha together, and Abenander's arm was visible but the rest of his body was beneath the rubble. The arm was identifiable because of the birth mark on the back of Abenander's hand.

"Persha, how could you?" whispered Adella seeing the dead body of her brother.

A horn sounded in the distance, it was the reinforcements of Malacca finally arriving. The guildsmen of Suldam also began sensing the destruction of the emperium, and chaos began to ensue.

Lucia and Sonon charged at Jared and Persha, their weapons drawn. They were fueled by rage over the death of Abenander, no mercy was going to be shown Jared, he was going to be slaughtered and Persha was going to be dealt with later.

Suddenly light erupted in between the Malaccan guild mates and Jared and Persha, Lucia and Sonon skidded to a halt not knowing what to expect. Weiss and two mounted knights from the rebel faction had teleported to them.

"Quick Jared, get up!" said Weiss rather worn out, the strain of teleporting three people and two pecopecos really drained him. Jared helped Persha up on the second Pecopeco before he mounted himself.

The knights kicked the flanks of their mounts and the birdlike monsters immediately took off.

"We're going to the clearing, new portals were opened to let us escape," explained Weiss through ragged breath. They were reaching the clearing, and the warp portals were visible when in high up in the sky a larger than normal explosion was heard, one of the wizards failed to deflect the lightning and had finally lost.

The wizard came plunging down to earth, his body still surging with magical energy, once he slammed into the ground an explosion equivalent more devastating than the lightning would occur. In a few seconds he finally reached the ground and his magical power imploded into itself. There's was no sound only blinding light before the ground began to quake more violently than anything before.

The pecopecos reared, and Persha fell off, Jared tried to reach for her hand but missed by mere inches. The dancer toppled to the ground and Jared attempted to jump of as well but the knight held him back on Weiss' orders.

Persha stood up and tried to run after Jared but the pecopecos ran much too fast and the toiling earth made it difficult to run.

"Jared!" called Persha to her lover. "Don't leave me!"

"Persha! I love you; I'll meet you in Payon! I'll wait for you." Shouted back Jared, the pecopecos finally entered through the warp and it closed behind them with a wink.

Persha wanted to cry but she couldn't risk it, Jared would meet her in Payon. She stood up and ran into the forest.

……………………………………………………

Nighttime in the Payonese forests can only be described, as some would say as cold, damp and dark only lit by rays from the moon passing between the branches of the trees.

Persha stared up at the moon; her guild had left her there. They couldn't bear to see her die under their own hands so they left, better that she died without them having to see it.

She closed her eyes and tears streamed down her face; she couldn't even see Jared before she died. Then, as if fate had finally taken mercy of the cursed lovers, a stray chance led Jared near Persha; his arms were healed fully, allowing him to play his mandolin once again.

He played the song that he made for Persha, in hopes that she'd find him if she heard it. As he walked through the forest and played his song, he could hear someone calling his name, it was feint but to the ears of a bard it was enough.

He followed it until he came into a clearing and saw his beloved lying on the ground in a puddle of water and blood.

"Persha, what have they done to you?" said Jared sorrowfully, tears streaming down his face. Persha weakly opened her eyes and saw her lover's face.

"Jared, my love, I'm glad that I could see you before I die," she said.

"No, Persha don't say things like that. Please come back, I love you I can't loose you. Please come back."

Persha caressed Jared's face, her vision was dimming and her life was draining away by the second. "Jared please sing your song for me, I want to hear it."

Jared couldn't bear refusing to grant her request. So he did, he began to sing the song that was meant for her and her alone.

_If I never knew you_

_If I never felt this love_

_I would have no inkling of_

_How precious life can be_

_And if I never held you I would never have a clue_

_How at last I'd find in you the missing part of me_

_In this world so full of fear_

_Full of rage and lies_

_I can see the truth so clear_

_In your eyes so dry your eyes_

_And I'm so grateful to you_

_I'd have lived my whole life through_

_Lost forever, if I never knew you_

_If I never knew you_

_I'd be safe but half as real_

_Never knowing I could feel_

_A love so strong and true_

_I'm so grateful to you_

_I'd have lived my whole life through_

_Lost forever, if I never knew you_

_I thought our love would be so beautiful_

_Somehow we made the whole world bright_

_I never knew that fear and hate could be so strong_

_All they'd leave us where these whispers in the night_

_But still my heart is singing we were right_

_If I never knew you_

_If I never knew this love_

_I would have no inkling of_

_How precious life can be_

_There's no moment I regret_

_Since the moment that we met_

_If our time has gone too fast I've lived at last..._

_I thought our love would be so beautiful_

_Somehow we'd make the whole world bright_

_I thought our love would be so beautiful_

_We'd turn the darkness into light_

_And still my heart is singing we were right_

_We were right and if I never knew you_

_I'd have lived my whole life through_

_Empty as the sky_

_Never knowing why_

_Lost forever if I never knew you_

By the time Jared finished the song Persha was dead, but she had died smiling; happy that she saw Jared even if it was for the final time.

_FIN_

Well, that was it! I had a great time writing i hope you had a great time reading! Pls don't forget to review!  



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